Squatters
by christibabe
Summary: Stephanie and Lula have their dream of opening their own business within their grasp. Something goes drastically wrong. Destitute and stranded in a strange town, they do the only thing they can, break into a vacant home and claim it for their own. Word reaches Ranger Manoso that things in Miami aren't what they seem and the CEO and owner of RangeMan Security, goes to investigate.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"_Don't move!"_

_The voice was distinctly masculine and had all the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I recognized it. In answer, I raised my hands, letting him know I wasn't a threat. Not taking my word for it, he shoved me against the wall. I felt the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of my head. As if his first directive wasn't enough, he went on to add, "Move and you're dead."_

_Just my luck… I'd moved thousands of miles away to elude a stalker, and wouldn't you know it, but the bastard had followed me. At least I was assuming the man behind me holding the gun to my head was my latest stalker. I'd only heard a distorted version of his voice until now, but my gut was telling me that this guy was it._

_One of the creep's hands started on a journey down my frame, and it was all I could do not to throw up at the feel of his hands on my body. _

_He leaned in, his breathing increasing as if the pervert was getting off on what he was doing to me. His mouth touched my ear as he whispered, "You've been a naughty girl. You shouldn't have left town like that. I had to change all my plans."_

_I bit my lip to keep from saying anything. I had no intention of giving him what he wanted. _

_His hand had reached my breast, and the painful nip when he pinched me told me that he wasn't happy with how this was going. Good. If he was upset, he might make a mistake, and when that happened, I needed to be ready to act. _

_As his hand lowered and moved between my thighs I gagged as bile rose in the back of my throat, to the point that my throat burned with it. I was going to hurl, and not even a bullet to the head was going to stop me. My head twisted, and I miraculously managed to miss throwing up on myself. The swearing from behind me told me that I'd scored a direct hit with my stalker._

_In retaliation to my tossing my cookies on him, he delivered a fist to my lower back where my kidneys were. _

_Excruciating pain had me curling in a ball on the floor. _

_Although creepy stalker man tried to keep me standing up, he wasn't strong enough to keep me from falling. I felt his hand curling into my hair as he yanked my head up. _

_My head hurt like a son of a bitch, and all I wanted to do was scream, but I wasn't going to. No way was I giving this bastard anything. I could feel the anger radiating from him, and the animalistic snarl told me things were going to get bad. I needed to push him over the edge in order to get my chance. I just hoped I could take what he was dishing out while I waited for that to happen._

_I was limp, refusing to listen to him when he demanded I stand up. _

_He let go of me, and there was a roar of rage before I felt the boot connecting with my mid-section. Pain radiated in every bone of my body. Again I refused to cry out._

_It only enraged him even more, and when he went to kick me again, I moved. Grabbing his foot, I twisted, throwing him off balance. He fell heavily to the ground, and I was on him in seconds. _

_Growing up as an Army brat, I'd learned a thing or two about taking care of myself. I was able to get the bastard in a choke hold, but it was like riding a bull at the rodeo. I had some leverage, but this guy was bigger and stronger than I was. Just when I thought he was done for, he'd start fighting even harder. _

_When he finally went limp, I slumped onto the floor, unable to move for several seconds while I got my breath back. Struggling to stand, I went to take a step away when something grabbed my ankle._

There was a blood curdling scream, and I jumped.

My heart was racing a mile a minute as I turned to where Lula was seated, watching the late, late, late movie. It was one of the_ Twilight_ series. Giving her my best 'Burg-girl glare, I asked, "What the hell was that? You just scared ten years off my life."

Lula turned in my direction. "Well if you wouldn't read all them creepy stalker books, you wouldn't get so scared."

"Well, what about you and that scary crap movie?"

"Oh, _no_! You didn't just do that. Tell me you didn't just diss one of the greatest movies of all time."

Sighing, I knew if I told her how I really felt about the _Twilight_ series, I'd never hear the end of it. Instead, I tempered it with: "I just can't get into the vampire and werewolf thing. Sorry."

Lula shrugged. "Well, I don't see what you do in them books of yours. I mean, whoever heard about a bounty hunter getting in all the scrapes that Bombshell Bounty Hunter does? I mean, some people must think she's a bit backward, if you know what I mean."

Okay, now she was just irritating me. I for one loved the zany escapades of Bombshell and her sidekick Luanne Labeau. Bombshell had some mad skills—either that, or she was the luckiest person in the western hemisphere.

I glanced down at the book I'd been reading, _A Stalker in the House _by Christi book was by far my favorite to date. I loved the stalker stories and how Bombshell always ended up on top. I had to admit, I'd love to be in her shoes, having two men hot for her. I knew which one of the men would be in my bed if I was her, and it wasn't the old news cop ex-boyfriend become boyfriend again. Nope. Not for me. I'd take the half Cuban hunky CEO security expert. All that hotness. Sigh…

The sound of Lula _ooh, ooh, oohing_ had me turning back to the TV in time to see the action heating up. Rolling my eyes, I tried to get back into the story, but my mind had already taken a detour. It was time for me to go around and make sure everything was locked up for the night anyway.

Debating on whether to say anything or not, I decided that I could be back before Lula even missed me. I stood and made my way through the modern home where we'd been staying for the past three weeks.

Lula and I had been saving for the past ten years so that we could go into business together. We'd met in kindergarten and become fast friends. When graduation neared, we'd both applied to Rutgers, where we had each been accepted into our relative field of study. Lula had gone onto interior decorating, and I had gone on to get a degree in business as well as a few other areas of interest.

Three weeks after graduation, the two of us had taken all of our graduation money and invested it. We'd worked hard to add money each month until finally we had enough to start up our own small business. We'd thought we'd found the perfect spot in an older part of Miami.

Unfortunately, the man that we did business with proved to be unreputable, and we'd lost everything. We were left with living in the piece of shit car that I'd bought to get us down here so we could save most of our finances for the business.

We'd been driving aimlessly when Lula had noticed this place. Of course, we didn't move in right away. Instead, we'd lived on the beach close by until we were sure there was no one around. It didn't take me long to override the security on the place and get us inside, and I was even able to make the system believe we weren't even here. It paid to have a hobby, and mine was insuring that we weren't living on the streets.

While one part of my mind had been lost in the path that had brought us to this moment, another part of me was going through the house and cataloguing that all the doors and windows were locked and the security system was armed.

Moving back to the den where I'd left Lula, I glanced outside. Stopping a moment, I stood there looking out at the ocean. How much longer would we be able to hide here? Of course, Lula wasn't calling it hiding. According to her, this home had been abandoned and we were squatters staking claim to it. Periodically over the six weeks we'd been here, we'd go out and get a job for a day or two in order to make money and replenish the groceries. I knew we'd need to do that once again within the next couple of days.

The sound of a garbage can being knocked over had me moving out of sight. The windows were darkened and no one could see inside, but still… There was a tingling on the back of my neck, and I shook my head as I thought I was letting the book I'd been reading play tricks with my mind. Hurrying back to where I'd left Lula, I came to a halt when the room was empty.

_Crap! _

Moving silently forward, I could feel the tension mounting. The room was in darkness except for the TV, and although it was still on, the sound was muted. There was a whisper of motion, I felt the change in the air, and the movement of the curtain was a dead-give-away. I took a step, and the sound of a gun being cocked had me frozen in place as a masculine voice said, "Move and you're dead."

I did what any sane person would do when their home had been invaded by an unknown assailant and they were told not to move. Run like hell. By now I knew every part of this house, and since I was used to making my way around without the use of light, I was able to move quickly, whereas my pursuer wasn't having as much luck. The sound of someone running into pieces of furniture strewn throughout the area followed by colorful curses made that obvious.

In the time that Lula and I had been living here, we'd had to hide on three occasions, and that's where I was headed. When I'd found it while we were exploring the house, I'd suggested that be our safe place if we were ever in danger. So far, it had worked beautifully.

Reaching the door, I paused only for an instant to put in the code that I'd re-programmed it with. The sound of the lock releasing gave me a sense of false security as I slipped inside the space. After closing the door, I turned to see Lula bopping up and down as she sat on something that was moving.

I moved closer, trying to see just what she was sitting on. Keeping my voice to a whisper, I asked, "What are you doing?"

She rolled her eyes. "I set my dildo on high and thought I'd take a ride while the boogie men are trying to get us. What the hell you think I'm doing?"

Smiling sweetly, even though I doubted she could see me in the muted light in the room, I made my voice sickeningly sweet as I replied, "From where I'm standing, it looks like you're taking advantage of some poor defenseless man…again."

She glared. "You take that back."

"Why should I?"

Her eyes widened, as if the question caught her flat-footed.

Before she had the chance to say or do anything else, whatever she was sitting on started shaking. The deep voice coming from the form told me it was indeed a man, and by now I'd gotten close enough to see that he was a big man in more ways than one. How Lula was able to keep him down just by sitting on him was a mystery to me.

The unknown man said, "How about you let me up now?"

Lula groused back, "How about if I don't. What you gonna do, big guy? From where I'm sitting, you're kinda stuck, so there."

The form stilled, and I had a bad feeling Lula shouldn't have challenged him. I was proven right when he dumped her unceremoniously on the ground and was up on his feet in seconds. I knew then that I was right about his size. The man standing before me was one of the tallest I'd ever seen off of a basketball court—maybe six and a half feet—and he had the body and muscle to match. The little light in the room shone off his bald head, and even in this lighting, I could see he was a handsome black man. He pressed a button on the watch at his wrist and said, "I'm in the safe room with the intruders, boss."

Big guy, as Lula had called him, just stood there with his arms crossed, watching us.

It seemed like a long time later but in actuality was probably more like a minute or two before there was sound from just outside the door. I recognized it as someone trying to input the code and get the door opened. The swearing when the door refused to budge told me that they'd put in the wrong code. I smiled, knowing that Lula and I were the only ones that knew that number, and at least for the time being, we were safe in here. Of course, we had the Jolly Green Giant in here with us, but I guess we couldn't have everything our own way.

More beeps followed by more swearing told me our friend on the other side was running out of chances. At best, he had two more tries, and I was feeling confident he wouldn't be getting that door open anytime soon.

One thing about being overly confident…there came a point when everyone met their match. For me, the door creaked open and my time was up. The man who strode into the room with us was the most handsome man I'd seen. He was sex personified, and he made every part of me sit up and take notice. His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his Latin American looks gave him the coloring of a Latino with the more American looks of his white ancestors. He was nearly half a foot taller than me and outweighed me by a good seventy-five pounds. His body was muscled, but not to the point that weight-lifters or Mr. Americas went to.

He held a Glock in his hands aimed at my head, and his eyes were narrowed as he kept me in his sights. His voice was as sexy as his looks. "Who are you, and what the hell are you doing in my house?"

Lula took exception to his question. "What you talking about, this being your house? You ain't been around for a long time. According to the neighbors, it's been nearly a year since you come here the last time. See, that means this is our house. We claimed it under that ignorant domain thingamajiggy."

The twitch of the bald guy's lips told me the ignorant thingamajiggy probably got him.

His boss had his blank face on and was showing nothing. He motioned with the gun for us to move back into the other part of the house, and seeing that we were at a slight disadvantage, I didn't see where we had a choice.

I led the way back to the den, and once the others were in the room, boss man spoke up. "Take a seat."

Seeing no reason not to be comfortable, I took the chair that I'd come to look on as mine. It was a black leather recliner, and the leather was so soft your body just melted into the chair. I moaned at the sensual pleasure just sitting in the chair gave me.

Lula snorted. "I think you got a thing for that chair. That's why you never let me sit there, ain't it?"

I glared in her direction and mumbled, "I don't have a thing for the chair. It's just comfortable is all."

The leader smirked in my direction. My body heated as his gaze went slowly over my form from head to toe and then back again.

My hands clenched into fists. As hot as this guy was, I didn't like his attitude. I figured I would see how he liked having someone look him over in the same manner he was using. Letting my gaze run over him just as slowly from head to toe, I stilled as I reached where his pants were tented out, my breathing quickening as I felt myself burning up with some kind of fever. The movement he made as he shifted slightly to ease the tightness brought me back to what I was supposed to be doing, and I quickly returned my gaze to his face. I could feel the heat from my face at his knowing look.

I ran my hand through my hair, stopping at the back of my neck so that I could rub at the electrical current running through my body at that particular spot. Pulling my feet up beside me on the seat, I tried to give the appearance of being relaxed. Lifting my chin in the air, I looked in the direction of the two men and asked, "So, what are you doing in our home?"

For a moment, the shorter of the two men looked like he'd been momentarily stunned by my question. He recovered quickly and rubbed the stubble on his jaw for a moment before turning to the other man. "Maybe Jericho was right and we should just turn them over to the police."

The giant nodded. "Want me to give Rafe a call?"

Lula's eyes bugged out at the mention of the police. "You can't do that!" She tuned to me, her hands were waving up and down in front of her on either side of her body. "They can't do that, can they? You know I can't do cops. They give me the runs. Oh, geez, I gotta go, _now_!"

Glaring at the two men, I stood and moved over to where she was seated on the sofa. I handed her the brown paper bag from the nightstand and instructed her, "Breathe. They won't call the cops. They're just trying to bully us. Now just calm down and let me handle this, okay?"

Lula was desperately trying to breathe into the paper sack in an effort to stop her panic. She nodded emphatically and rushed from the room.

Baldy went to follow her, so I stuck my foot out and tripped him, causing him to go down to the floor.

The cocking of a gun had me freezing in place as my hands rose to show I was no threat.

The leader leaned down and whispered menacingly, "That wasn't a smart move, Babe."

I swallowed hard and then turned to meet his gaze. "She's my friend. You don't understand… She can't handle this type of intimidation. We both know you aren't going to call the cops. If you were, they'd already be here. Now, let's all just sit down and we can talk this out."

His eyes narrowed on me for several seconds. I continued to stand there looking at him, refusing to back down. Suddenly, he gave a slight nod of his head. "All right. We'll do this your way. Have a seat."

I moved back over toward the recliner, but a hand on my arm stopped me. "You sit on the sofa. The chair is mine."

I looked wistfully at the chair before giving a sigh and doing as he had suggested.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Stephanie's POV**

We sat in silence for several seconds, and it was all I could do not to fidget, but I would be damned if I'd give them any hint that I wasn't as confident as I was trying to portray. My gaze went in the direction Lula had gone, and I worried about how she was handling all of this.

Baldy ran his hand over his head, as if he was debating on whether or not to follow her.

The man seated in my favorite chair never took his eyes off me as he said, "Go see what's keeping her."

Baldy winced. "I was thinking maybe I should stay here for protection."

One eyebrow rose, but other than that, his gaze remained fixed on me as he said, "I think I can handle this one. She's not armed, and she can't weigh more than a hundred and twenty-five pounds."

The sound of a voice clearing had me looking up at the second man. There was a red tinge to his black skin as he mumbled, "I meant my protection from the crazy lady, boss."

I couldn't help it. The thought of this big guy scared of Lula was just too funny.

At first I was able to hold it in, but then the big guy said, "Boss, I think this one's having a fit of some kind."

Laughter erupted, and I fell over on the sofa, holding my stomach because it hurt from the force of my laughter.

The man in my chair let out a disgusted sound. "How can you be afraid of an unarmed woman?"

Big guy mumbled, "She sat on me. I wouldn't call that defenseless."

I couldn't see what the two men were doing because I was laughing so hard. Just when I thought I had myself under control, the big guy would say something else to set me to laughing all over again.

There was a pregnant pause before the hot guy replied. "You must be slipping. When we get back, maybe you should sign up for the next training regimen."

"Ah, Ranger, you can't be serious?"

"Well, you keep digging yourself in deeper. What's the number one rule when dealing with unknowns?"

"Shit! Sorry, boss."

Finally getting myself under control, I managed to sit up and look at the two men. My eyes widened as I caught a glimpse of Lula in the mirror over the fireplace. _Oh, shit!_ I had to stop her, or this poor guy would probably get bumped back to raw recruit in whatever business these two were in.

When I stood, Ranger—as the big guy had referred to him—motioned with his weapon for me to sit back down, but I couldn't just let Lula hit the big guy with that vase. Judging by the house we were in, I knew the piece was an original and probably worth thousands of dollars.

I rolled my eyes before sending him a glare. "You really should get a reality check, Ranger. I'm trying to do your friend, the Jolly Green Giant, a favor here."

There was menace in his tone as he said, "Sit down…_now_. We can discuss the favor once you give me the information I want."

I debated my options and decided if he wanted to be an ass, who was I to stop Lula from giving him exactly what he deserved? Sitting back on the sofa, I let out a pent-up breath. A second later, a loud clang rang out as Lula brought the vase down on the big guy's head, followed by the sound of shattering crystal.

Ranger's gaze met mine as realization dawned what I'd been trying to do. A wry smile crossed his sensual mouth. "Touché, Babe."

I shrugged one shoulder but remained silent as Ranger seemed to study me. After several seconds, he said, "Since my friend has already given away who I am, let me make the introductions. This is my second in command, Tank. I'm the owner of this house that you've broken into and claimed for your own, Ricardo Carlos Manoso, but you can call me Ranger."

I bit my lip as I decided whether to be as forthcoming. Knowing we were already in the wrong, I opted not to add to our list of sins by lying to the man. I motioned to Lula and made the introductions as well. "This is my friend and business partner, Lula Banks, and I'm Stephanie Plum."

Ranger put the safety on his Glock and returned it to the utility belt that he wore. He motioned with his hand to the sofa. "Have a seat, ladies, and we'll get this conversation going."

Lula folded her arms over her ample chest and refused to budge. Seeing the look on her face, I winced. She'd had that same look on her face before we left Trenton to come here six weeks ago. There was no reasoning with her when she got in one of these moods. No matter how many times we'd ended up in trouble, she was equally convinced there would be a different outcome each time.

In many ways, she reminded me of one of the characters of a sitcom my parents watched all the time when I was a child. _I Love Lucy_ was a daily occurrence in our house. I loved the zany things Lucy did each episode.

I rolled my eyes at Lula to try to bring her out of her zone, but it was no good. Of course, we hadn't been friends for twenty-three years without my learning some of her quirks—ever since the first day of kindergarten when Dickie Orr tried to kiss me on the playground and Lula came to my rescue by slugging him and pulling him off me.

Quickly, my brain raced through all of the food still in the fridge and pantry. Unfortunately, none of it would tempt her enough. My gaze went to Tank, and an idea popped into my mind. "Have you guys eaten?"

From the darting of Lula's eyes, I knew I had her attention.

Tank winced. "We didn't have time. Ranger wanted to get here to see what was going on. All I've had since lunch was a little packet of peanuts."

Lula's nose started quivering. She loved those peanuts that came in the airline packets. But there was something she loved even more. Of course, there was no way we had the money for that place, but maybe these two would take pity on her. Come to think of it, dinner was a while ago, and I never was one for salad. The lame one we'd shared didn't go nearly far enough—but you did what you had to when money was tight.

I turned to Ranger. "There's an Italian place not too far from here that delivers. They have excellent food."

Ranger's gaze went from me to Lula and then moved back to me.

I didn't know him very well, but it seemed like he was softening toward us.

He shook his head. "All right, Tank. Why don't you and…Lula, go and order something for all of us?"

Lula smiled and grabbed Tank's hand before disappearing with him in the direction of the kitchen, where the menu for the restaurant was kept in a drawer with the other menus we had accumulated during our stints as waitresses.

A deep chuckle had me looking in Ranger's direction. "What would you have done if I'd told Tank to order for the two of us and left you and your friend out of it?"

I shrugged a shoulder before lifting my chin as I faced him. "It wouldn't have been a problem for me. On the other hand, you would have had to fight Lula off for the food. She loves Italian. Almost as much as she loves the Colonel's food. The extra crispy kind."

"So, while they're ordering the food, suppose you tell me why the two of you broke in here."

A pent-up sigh escaped. "We came to Miami six weeks ago to open our own business. We had the money, and everything was all set. Unfortunately, the asshole that we were dealing with is a crook."

"Didn't you check into his background?"

Nodding, I told him, "I did. His references were impeccable. The problem is, the creep wasn't who he said he was."

"What happened?"

"We went to the meeting, and his thugs were there with him, waiting for us. They took all the money we had with us, but I had deposited most of it in a bank when we arrived. He and his goons kept Lula and let me go so that I could withdraw it."

From the corner of my eye, I could see the clenching of his hands. I looked over to where he was sitting, and the muscle jumping in his jaw told me that my story had hit a sensitive spot.

Ranger turned to look me directly in the eyes. "Did they do anything to you?"

I shook my head. "Not me. But Lula won't talk about what happened while I was gone. She was in bad shape when I got back with the money."

"I'm surprised they let you go."

I hesitated before telling him, "They didn't have a choice. I put the money in a secured safe with explosives attached. I told them if they wanted the money, they'd have to let Lula go. Once she was in the car, I blew it up. The money burned instantly. So, see, they didn't get anything from us, but we couldn't claim they'd taken the money either."

For a moment, there was no reaction from the man in front of me. Then, a few seconds later, he smiled. He had the whitest teeth I'd ever seen, and his smile was like a zillion watts lighting up the night sky. Electricity zinged to my doodah, and I fell like a ton of bricks.

He turned to me and said, "Proud of you, Babe."

While we were waiting for the food to arrive, Ranger insisted on going through the house so he could check things out for himself. He'd paused in the rooms that Lula and I had changed around to suit ourselves—we'd switched out the black lacquer furniture in the green room with the antique wood furnishings because Lula preferred the black furniture, and we'd rearranged the master suite so that the morning sun wouldn't wake me up when the sun rose each day—but for the most part, we hadn't changed things too much. We were just entering the dining room when the food arrived.

My cheeks heated as my stomach let out a growl when we stepped into the dining room. The salad I'd eaten earlier was long gone from my system, and the welcome smells from the containers on the table called to me. The soft chuckle from beside me had me looking in Ranger's direction.

There was a rakish smile on his face that, had I not already fallen, would have taken me the rest of the way.

The touch of his hand on my lower back sent electricity dancing through my body as he led me over to the table. Once I was seated, he chose the end seat closest to me and sat down.

The table was rectangular with a chair on either end and two chairs on each side. Lula was already seated across from me at an angle, so that left the last place for Tank. From the expression on his face, I suspected he'd wanted the spot by Ranger, leaving the end by Lula for me.

Lula looked up at him, batting her eyes in a flirtatious manner. The sugary-sweet voice she used when she spoke told me she'd already set her sights on Tank. She patted the chair beside her and said, "Take a load off, handsome."

Tank's expression made me think he'd rather be anywhere else in the world than where he was at that moment. He looked at Ranger, the expression on his face almost pleading, but silently, he sank into the chair at the end of the table beside Lula.

There was a vast array of food to choose from—pizza, subs, spaghetti, lasagna, and in the middle of the table was a large bowl of salad. I bypassed the salad, figuring I'd already eaten enough of that to last me several weeks. The only problem was, the food looked and smelled so good that I was having a difficult time making a decision on what I wanted.

Lula, on the other hand, was having no such issues. It was as if she'd divided her plate into segments and each segment held a different entrée.

The stunned look on Tank's face as he watched her fill her plate was comical.

I glanced at Ranger and noticed that even he seemed a bit impressed at Lula's ability to fit the equivalent of four meals on one plate.

She had just picked up her fork, twisting spaghetti around the tines, when Tank decided to be helpful and offered her the bowl of salad. Where he thought she would put it was a mystery, because there was no blank spot on the plate.

She didn't even break stride as the food went into her mouth and nudged the salad bowl away with her free hand. She swallowed the food, almost without chewing, and said, "Get that lame-ass shit outta my way, handsome. I ain't eating rabbit food when I got the real stuff."

Tank nearly choked on air. He set the bowl down hurriedly and put his fist to his mouth as he started coughing.

Lula's eyes widened, and she hurried to stand. She walloped Tank on the back so hard that his face nearly went into his plate of food. She panicked, moved around behind him, and wrapped her arms around his massive chest, squeezing him.

Ranger turned to look at me. "What's she doing to him, Babe?"

All I could do was shake my head. "I think she's trying to save him."

"Can you get her to stop?"

I shrugged. "I can try."

Looking at the table, I saw what I needed and reached over to open the box.

Lula stopped what she was doing and started sniffing the air. "I smell tarametsue." Smiling, she moved so that she could grab it.

Knowing that once she had the container, the dessert would be gone, I quickly scooped out a small portion for myself before handing it over—smiling the whole time at her mispronunciation of the dessert's name.

Tank chose that moment to speak up. "Hey! That's my dessert. I got that for me."

Lula turned to him, plopping her hands on her ample hips as she said, "Oh! So now you gonna get greedy on me? You gonna deny lil ol' me who's wasting away ta nothing a taste of ambrosia because you don't want ta share?"

Tank had the look of a deer caught in headlights.

I took a bite of the dessert and moaned. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ranger fidgeting on the chair and wondered what was up with him. Not wanting to have to give up the little taste of the dessert I'd taken, I continued to eat while Lula and Tank debated on just whom it belonged to.

When I took the last bite, I looked over to see Lula and Tank both eating the rest of the dessert, each taking the biggest bite they could to get the most of what was left. Tank scooped the last bite onto his fork, and Lula's eyes widened. She grabbed his hand, and the two of them struggled over the last forkful of the tiramisu. Tank had nearly managed to get the bite to his mouth, when Lula stood, leaned over, and wrapped her lips around the morsel on the fork.

Tank stood hurriedly, his chair scraping against the floor as it went skidding back. "That was cheating. You stole my bite."

Lula's cheeks looked like those of a chipmunk as she tried to talk around the food in her mouth. "I inna eat."

Tank paused, frowning. "What?"

She glared at him. "ou eard ee."

"I can't understand you."

Lula quickly chewed the food in her mouth and swallowed before saying, "You heard me."

Tank moved closer to her, leaning over. "I didn't understand what you said after I told you that you cheated."

She lifted her chin as she poked him in the chest. "I told you that I didn't cheat. Maybe you should get the wax cleaned outta your ears so's you can hear."

"I could hear fine if you hadn't been talking with a mouthful of food."

It was like watching a tennis match, and my head swiveled from one to the other as I nibbled on the meatball sub that I'd chosen to eat.

Every so often, I'd glance at Ranger, but he seemed to be in a zone all his own as he ate a healthy portion of the salad. When he put his fork and knife on his plate, sitting back with the bottle of water that he was drinking, I asked, "Is that all you're going to eat? Salad?"

One corner of his mouth lifted in a slight smile. "The body is a temple, Babe. That other stuff will kill you."

I looked at the sandwich that I'd half eaten and then looked back to Ranger. "At least my taste buds will be happy." I took another bite. Chewing it slowly, I had to admit that I was full, even though I would love to eat the rest of the sandwich. I wrapped the rest of it back up in the paper it had come in. I bit my lip, looking in Lula's direction.

Ranger leaned in. He winked at me. "Don't worry, Stephanie. If she eats it, I'll buy you another one just to hear those moans you make when you're eating."

Blushing with embarrassment, I went to turn away.

His hand came up and took hold of my chin. "Nothing to be embarrassed about. I rather enjoyed the sounds."

The feeling that someone was watching me had me turning to the other end of the table. Tank and Lula were each standing there with their arms crossed over their chests, and each had a raised eyebrow as they tapped a foot on the floor.

Lula was the first to speak, "Something you want to share with the rest of us, Steph?"

"Umm, no. Not really. Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. You two look kind a chummy is all."

Tank nodded. "They do look like they're enjoying themselves." His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't be laughing at me now, would you, boss?"

Ranger raised a shoulder in a slight shrug. "If you don't want people to laugh, then check the comedy act at the door. I've had more fun being tortured by the enemy."

At the word torture, Lula paled, swaying.

Tank took hold of her arm and steadied her. "You all right?"

Her lip quivered. "Yeah, just peachy." She pushed away from him and stalked off. Stopping at the door, she looked over her shoulder at me. "I'm turning in." She pursed her lips before asking, "We still going to JoAnne's Chocolates in the morning?"

I looked over at Ranger. He seemed to be studying me. I continued looking at him as I answered Lula, "Let's plan on it."

She sounded like a lost little girl when she said, "Okay. See you tomorrow, Steph."

My gaze moved in her direction, and I caught a glimpse of the uncertainty there. "Night, Lula."

There was silence until the sound of a door closing was heard—although my mind was racing—and then Ranger's gaze narrowed on me, as if he could see into my mind and knew I was worrying about something. He asked, "What?"

I had two choices: pretending I didn't know what he was talking about, or being honest and getting everything out there. For me, that was a simple decision. "If we leave, what are the chances of us being able to come back?"

He tilted his head. "About the same as you being able to get in here in the first place."

I smiled. "That was easy."

His eyes narrowed. "Why do you say that?"

Figuring he had already decided whether or not he was going to let Lula and me stay here, I had nothing to lose by telling him how I'd been able to get in to begin with. "The security company that monitors this house follows a strict routine for checking on the place. Once I'd determined what that schedule was, it didn't take me long to find out what the code was to get into the house. Once we were inside, I was able to get into the system and override it so it would give an all's well to the computers when they checked for signs of life inside the house."

He looked stunned. "You were able to hack my system?"

I shrugged. "It was pretty easy, really."

From the look on his face, that news didn't set well with him at all.

If I thought he was going to let it go at that and let me go to bed, I was wrong. He took hold of my arm and pulled me up with him as he stood. He didn't give me a chance to say anything. Laying a finger over my lips, he leaned down close to my ear and said, "You're going to show me everything you did, Babe."

I made a face at him, but he had a blank look on his face.

Letting out a sigh, I resigned myself to the inevitable and followed him to the room where the computers were set up. It wouldn't take long to show him how I'd been able to override his system and reprogram it to indicate that all was clear. The sticky part was going to come in when he saw the program I had up and running to scam the con men who had tried to steal our money.

I had no intention of keeping any of that money for myself, but when I delved into the true identity of Thomas Kincaid, I'd learned that the man using his identity was none other than Vinnie Rangoonie—a two-bit hood who used his uncle's connections to buy a rundown piece of property in an older part of Miami. The building was ideal for a startup business like the one Lula and I wanted to start. The property was legally in his name, and he'd created dummy corporations to act as the selling agent. His uncle, Alexander Ramos, had contacts that Rangoonie had used to forge documents for him.

Although it had been easy enough to get all this information once I had a photo of Rangoonie, there was no way we could have known before the face-to-face that the man was a crook. There were dozens of people who had lost their life savings the same way as Lula and me. That, coupled with the times Lula had woken in a panic because she'd thought she was back there with them, and I was determined to make them pay.

Ranger flipped the light switch as we entered the room. On reaching the desk, he put his hands on my shoulders, turned me to the computer, and then gently pressed to get me to sit. He grabbed the other chair and sat at an angle so one leg was behind me but the rest of him was beside me. Pointing to the screen, he said, "Show me everything."

There were several safeguards in place so that not just anyone could come in here and get on the computer. Knowing the code to get past all of them afforded me entrance in under thirty seconds. I logged on and called up the security schematic.

He let out an oath as I showed him the path that I'd followed to get into the program, and then as I maneuvered my way around the program, I could feel his tension growing. When I finished, his blank look was firmly in place as he told me, "Correct it."

My hesitation didn't go unnoticed.

His eyes narrowed. What else is there?"

I glanced in his direction before I called up the screens that were running the program I'd set up.

It didn't take long for the explosion. "Damn it, Stephanie! What the hell are you doing, trying to scam Alexander Ramos's nephew? Do you have any idea what he'll do to you when he finds out what you're doing? Ramos is crazy. He'll kill you first and ask questions later."

My chin lifted. "I'm not going after Ramos. It's his nephew I'm after."

"Who's protected by Ramos."

I lifted a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

He leaned in so his mouth was a whisper from my face. "You're at it now."

My eyes closed as I fought for control. The tears were close to the surface, and I refused to cry in front of Ranger. I wasn't the type of person to use tears to get my way, but Rangoonie had hurt Lula. He was going to pay for that.

A deep sigh beside me had me opening my eyes to see a gentle look on his face. "Okay, Babe. I'll run interference for you on this one, but no guarantees. I still might have to tell you to pull the plug."

I made a face.

Ranger grinned, tapping a finger to my nose as he asked, "Do you say your thoughts out loud often?"

Rolling my eyes, I admitted, "More than I'd like."

He threw back his head and laughed.

Figuring I would need to find a new room in the huge mausoleum that he called a house, I headed for the master bedroom with Ranger beside me. To say I was stunned when he stopped at the door and told me to sleep well would be putting it mildly.

Totally confused, I asked, "Don't you want your room?"

He gave me a rakish smile. "Actually, I like thinking of you sleeping in my bed, Babe." He leaned down and gave my lips a whisper of a kiss before he turned and walked away.

Moving into the bedroom, I stripped down and went through to the bathroom to complete my nightly ritual. When I climbed into bed, I moaned just like every other night since we'd been staying here. Someday, I was going to have sheets this soft on my bed. Snuggling down, I closed my eyes and let sleep claim me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Ranger's POV**

I walked into one of the spare bedrooms as I punched in the number I knew by heart. She wouldn't be happy with what I was going to tell her, but I saw no reason to prolong this.

She answered on the third ring in that false little-girl voice she liked to use, "Ranger! I've been waiting ages for you to call me."

Not wasting words, I got right to the point. "It's over, Jeanne Ellen."

Now the pouty vixen came out. "But _why_? When you left here, you were ready to propose. I know you were."

"There won't be any proposals. I no longer have any interest in you."

Now the real Jeanne Ellen came out as she said, "You'll be sorry. I'll take you down; just wait and see if I don't! You can't just drop me for no reason and get away with it."

I disconnected the call. Chances were I'd regret letting that bitch in my life, but until a few hours ago, I'd never thought that I'd meet a woman who would cause me to feel the emotions that I was feeling at this moment. I knew what Jeanne Ellen was capable of when she thought she'd been slighted. I put through another call to make sure my directive would be carried out.

The call was answered by a sassy female voice saying, "It's your nickel; make it count."

There was a slight tug at the corner of my mouth as I thought about smiling. "Put Lester on, Kirslyn."

The corner of my mouth pulled into a partial smile as she answered back, "Who died and made you my boss?"

The smile grew. "Please."

I could imagine her eyes narrowing at the phone. "Better, but no cigar."

Letting out a chuckle, I asked, "Kirslyn, would you please put Lester on so I can have him make sure Jeanne Ellen follows through and leaves the apartment on the seventh floor?"

There was a stunned silence for several seconds. "You kicked the bitch out? Gee, Ranger. Who knocked some smarts into that head of yours finally?"

My eyes narrowed. I knew it wouldn't do any good to reprimand her. One thing I'd learned about my cousin's girlfriend was that she wouldn't take guff off of anybody and she always spoke her mind. She'd had Lester chasing his tail from day one, and I didn't see that changing anytime soon. She was loyal, though, and I pitied the fool who went after one of her friends.

"Is there a chance that Lester will be getting on the line anytime soon?"

A husky laugh was my answer before I heard Lester being called to the phone.

Lester was chuckling when he came on the phone. "I hear you finally got your head out of your ass and kicked Jeanne Ellen to the curb. I also hear I get to make sure the white trash is collected on garbage day."

Shaking my head, I admitted, "That's about the gist of it. Think you can handle it?"

I heard the smile in his voice as he replied, "If I can't, Red would love nothing better than to pull her out of the building by the roots of her hair."

"I'll leave her in your hands, then. You're in charge till I get back. And just so you know, it might take a while."

Lester sobered quickly. "What's going on?"

"Tank and I ran into the something weird going on with the house."

"Shit! You had intruders?"

"It's complicated. Let's just say we'll be investigating a few things. I need you to put Hector on the Ramos family. I want to know all the comings and goings. Tell him to report directly to me. I might need to call a few of the guys to get here ASAP, so tell Tom until further notice, he's on call twenty-four-seven."

"You want to clue me in?"

"Not at the moment. I also need you to have Rodriguez do a background search on the entire Miami team. I want to know what they were doing that this didn't alert anyone else. I also need whatever he can find on a Lula Banks and Stephanie Plum."

"Will do. When do you need this? Yesterday?"

"That sounds about right."

I disconnected the call before setting the phone on the nightstand. I stripped down and climbed into bed. My thoughts went to the woman sleeping in my bed at that moment, and for the first time in a long time, I felt alive.

**Stephanie's POV**

It was nearly nine thirty when Lula and I arrived at JoAnne's Chocolates. We made our way into the building and stopped at reception to ask the blonde sitting behind the information desk where we needed to go.

Her gaze raked over Lula in her leopard-print leggings and zebra-striped tank top, and from the look on her face, it was obvious she'd written us off. Her tone was frosty as she said, "I wouldn't even bother if I were you. I doubt that either one of you will last beyond the first hour."

Lula gave her a glare before saying, "You an uppity bitch, ain't you? Well, Miss Thing, just so as you know, we'll be seeing you at quitting time."

With that, Lula sashayed over to the elevator—as much as a plus-sized woman can sashay—and pressed the up and down arrows to call both cars.

By the time I joined her, she'd turned as if to see what was keeping me. Her eyes flicked past me to the desk, and she made a face. I could only guess that the blonde had done something to draw the look. Lula confirmed that when I stopped beside her. "I swear I'm gonna snap her like a twig if she don't stop that bitch-mood attitude thing she got going on."

I bit my lip so the smile I was fighting wouldn't slip. Yes, Lula made me laugh, but I would never hurt her feelings by making her think I was laughing at her. It was more of a case that I lived vicariously through her because she wasn't afraid to do the things I'd only think about.

I scanned the list of offices and said, "We need to go down three floors."

The elevator opened, and the up arrow showed. We waited, and as we did, there was a snicker behind us. No need to second guess who was behind that. The second car opened, and we stepped inside. Lula flipped the blonde a hand gesture any Italian would be proud of and then pressed the button to tell the elevator where to take us.

When we arrived at our destination, it was a bit creepy. We had to walk through a dark hallway in order to get to the office we needed, and there were all sorts of creepy noises going on.

Lula stopped. "You sure we want ta work here?"

"This is the best-paying job of all the ones we applied for. We have to give it a chance at least," I told her.

She tilted her head, motioning to the door we were heading toward. "This place kind of puts me in mind of those vampire homes you see at Halloween."

I rolled my eyes. "I told you that you've been watching too much Twilight."

Her eyes widened, and she looked like she was going to hyperventilate. Her voice lowered so it was barely a whisper as she said, "You take that back. That's just wrong on so many levels."

I smiled. I couldn't help teasing her a little more by saying, "Just think how much money you could save if you stopped buying all of that Twilight stuff."

Lula's hands went to her hips, and she took on a pose that told people not to mess with her unless they wanted hurt.

Although I knew she would never hurt me, I also knew that I'd pressed the issue as much as I dared. I giggled. "I'm just kidding."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know, and one of these days, I'm gonna get you back."

If nothing else, my teasing had served to distract us from the sounds we were hearing in the hallway, because now we were outside the door. I knocked, and at the muffled, "Come in," I opened the door and we made our way inside.

If we'd thought the hallway was creepy, that was nothing compared to the room we'd just stepped into. The man standing in front of us was a twin to Lurch from the _Addams Family_. On seeing us, the corner of his mouth lifted into a sneering smile, and he made a sound that wasn't a moan, groan, or growl, but some kind of combination of all three.

Lula looked at me, and by the look on her face, I knew that she was giving me a second chance to change my mind about working here. What with everything that happened with Rangoonie and Ranger reclaiming his home, I didn't see as we had much choice.

I gave the Lurch look-a-like a finger wave and tried to force a smile to my face. What came off was a weak imitation of the smile I was aiming for. "We're here about the job."

He nodded and pointed to something behind us. We turned, and it was all I could do not to scream my head off. There on a shelf were all sorts of heads. For several seconds, my heart was racing and I felt like we were done for.

When the Lurch look-a-like spoke, his voice was deep and his words came very slowly. "Those"—he pointed to the heads—"go on the mannequins." And with that, he left the room.

Lula swatted my arm. "Just how the heck we supposed to attach them heads? Mr. Long, Tall, and Creepy didn't bother to let us in on that."

I shrugged. "I don't know. Grab one of them, and we'll see if we can figure this out."

"Nuh-uh! You got the wrong scenario if you think I'm touching any of those heads."

I rolled my eyes as I let out a deep sigh. "All right, then you get the body and I'll get the head."

Lula took a look at the bodies, and at that moment, one of the arms went up in the air of its own accord, or so it seemed. She jumped, and I found myself between her and the mannequins.

I tried to turn around, but her grip tightened and there was nowhere for me to move. I put as much authority in my voice as I could manage and told her, "You can let go now. I think it was the force of the fan over there that caused the arm to move."

She shuddered. "I think you just trying to make me feel better. Well, it ain't working."

I couldn't help it. I grinned. "Come on. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get out of here."

"Now you talking sense. But I vote we just get out of here."

I shook my head as I went over and grabbed the first headless doll. If I thought this was going to be easy, I was wrong. The thing weighed more than I did. I manipulated it over closer to where the heads were, and that's when I saw that Lula was just standing there biting on her thumbnail as she made whining noises. "Come on! Just pick one and let's get this done."

"Well, I can't decide. Did you get a man body or a woman?"

"They're unisex. Just pick a freaking head so we can get this done."

She huffed, then glanced my way.

If she didn't hurry up, I was going to drop this sucker, and then with the luck we'd been having lately, the thing would break. Just as I felt my grip slipping, she brought over a head and tried to attach it.

Of course, it couldn't be that simple. I felt like I was wrestling both Lula and the mannequin. First we'd swing one way, and then another. All of a sudden, there was a pop, and Lula squealed, "I got it!"

She helped me to set the figure upright, and then we stood back, looking at her handiwork.

Lula looked over at me. "You think they gonna notice that head on backwards?"

I nodded. "It's kind of hard to miss."

"Well, I don't like the feel of that thing. You take the head this time."

It was pointless to argue because I knew that I'd wind up with the head anyway, so I just told her, "Make sure you hang on to the body. It's pretty slippery."

"I got it. Don't you be worrying none about me. You just concentrate on fixing that head."

I tried to pull it off, but it was like it had slid home when the head popped. I yanked, and the head moved, but so did the body and Lula.

"Damn, girl. What are you trying to do?"

I stopped tugging long enough to pull air into my lungs. "I'm trying to get the head off so we can fix this thing."

Just then, the door opened and Lurch returned. When he saw the mannequin between us, his eyes widened in horror. The only word that escaped was when he said, "Ugh!" He turned to look at us. "You killed it."

Lula straightened, letting go of her end, and smiled weakly at him. "Sorry, Mr. Creepy Guy, but we tried fixing it and the thing just won't get fixed."

His eyes swung to her and narrowed.

All the hair on the back of my neck stood up on end. I let the mannequin slide from my grip, and then I grabbed Lula's arm. "We need to use the facilities. We'll be back in just a second."

Without waiting, I dragged Lula out of the room with me and had just gotten on the other side of the door when Lurch took a step toward us as he said, "Wait."

I pushed Lula toward the stairs and yelled, "_Run_!"

Fortunately, Lula and I had been friends long enough that she knew when I yelled run, I wasn't playing around. We bypassed the elevator and entered the stairwell, lucking out that the stairs were wide enough for both of us to run up them at the same time. When we exited onto the main floor, we both took off running toward the front entrance.

As we closed in on our exit, I saw a black vehicle coming to a stop on the other side of the glass outside the building.

We were nearly at the door when Lurch spoke from behind us. "Stop them!"

Two uniformed guards started walking our way just as the front door opened and the sound of a gun being cocked could be heard loud and clear. A warm hand reached out and drew me into a strong hold as a familiar voice said, "Babe. Are you all right?"

I nodded as I snuggled farther into his hold. "We are now."

The guards stopped about a foot away, and something about the way they looked at Tank and Ranger made my stomach feel as if it was being twisted in knots. One of them looked at me, and his expression changed. It was no longer the hateful glare that the man had given the guys, but it made me want to take a shower to wash away the filthy feeling the man gave me. I reached out and placed my hand in Ranger's.

I looked up when I felt his hand squeeze mine. He had one eyebrow raised as he asked, "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I'm just getting a bad vibe from the guards. Can we get out of here?"

Ranger's gaze went to Tank, and they shared some kind of silent communication.

Before we could head for the exit, Lula squeaked, "Hey, Steph. There's some dummies like we was working with down below."

I looked over at the window display and noticed there were several life-sized dolls posed in various scenes. There was a sign near the display that read, _Life-sized chocolate dolls—the perfect gift for any party_.

Shaking my head, I muttered, "I'd be happy to never see another one of those things, ever."

Ranger grinned at me. "Bad day, Babe?"

Glaring at him I left them standing there as I strode toward the door. When I got closer to where the two guards were standing, I felt like my stomach had gone on a rollercoaster ride without me. I felt myself slowing down, and just before I reached them, I felt the electricity on the back of my neck only a moment before Ranger's hand rested at my waist.

The guards' eyes flashed, and once again, a look almost like hatred crossed their faces. The four of us continued on, not bothering to stop and chat with the two men.

Once we were in our cars, the bad feeling dissipated. I made a mental note to run the employees through the search engines when we got back to the house. I was getting ready to start the car when Ranger knocked on the window beside me. Rolling it down, I lifted my head so that our eyes would meet.

"What can I do you for, handsome?"

The corner of his mouth crooked into a smile as he reached in a finger and flicked my nose before winking. He leaned in closer and whispered close to my ear, "That's a dangerous question, Babe. But for now, I'll settle for you leading the way to Bolo. We'll grab a bite to eat before we head home."

My stomach chose that precise moment to let itself be heard. The silent shaking of Ranger's head told me that he heard the sound and was amused. I glared at him before pushing the elbow he had resting on my car. His only response was a raised eyebrow. "I'll head out as soon as you get to your car."

With that, Ranger straightened and headed to the Porsche Cayenne.

My gaze went to the building one final time before I started the car. I paused as I noticed three men standing at a window on the third floor. Cold chills raced down my spine as I watched the three men standing there watching us. There was something seriously off about this, but I didn't know yet what it might be. I glanced over at Lula. She had a strange expression on her face. "What's wrong?"

She turned to me and shook her head. "You remember that time when those boys made up that flyer when we was in high school? About how the KKK was right-on with their methods of getting rid of all the blacks?"

My jaw clenched. It was our junior year of high school when a group of white supremacists circulated flyers around town depicting black people being hanged and burned. They targeted and terrorized several of the black students. Lula was one of the girls who had been targeted.

We'd been walking to the library after school one day to do some studying when three of the guys in the group had stepped out in front of us. Before we could do anything, the rest of the boys had surrounded us. What the boys hadn't realized was that we were still close enough to the school that we were visible from the football field. When the team had seen what was happening, they'd all come barreling over to where we were, with Joe Morelli in the lead.

Joe had been the captain of the football team as well as the team quarterback. What had happened next was poetry in motion. The team had tackled the group and proceeded to explain what happened to people who tried to bully their friends.

I looked over at Lula. "I remember."

She nodded. "This feels like then."

I nodded. "Yeah, I thought so too."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Stephanie's POV**

The sound of the alarm going off woke me. I stretched, arching my back, before I leaned over and hit the alarm button. It was earlier than usual because Lula and I were scheduled to start work at nine, and it was important that we get to the bank early so we could make a good impression. After the fiasco at JoAnne's Chocolates, Lula and I had hit the pavement looking for another job. Yesterday, we'd scored a hit when we were both hired as tellers at the First Miami Bank.

After taking care of Mother Nature's call, I showered and dressed in one of my office outfits: a seashell-blue blouse and dark-navy skirt that ended a couple of inches above my knees. I paired the ensemble with a pair of tan strappy sandals and then twisted my hair into a French knot. After putting on my makeup, I finished the look with my favorite pearl-drop earrings. I took one final look in the mirror before grabbing my little black clutch purse and going to find Lula.

I didn't have to look around to know that Ranger and Tank were gone, just like every other morning since they'd arrived here three days ago. As I made my way into the kitchen where Lula was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, I had the fleeting thought that they must wake up at the first sign of daylight.

Lula looked up as I entered and wrinkled her nose. "Don't bother looking for real food. All we gots is this coffee and some lame-ass fruit and yogurt."

My eyes rolled before I could stop the reaction. The coffee would be welcomed, but like Lula, when I got up in the morning, I needed real food. Like doughnuts. Or pancakes. Or eggs, bacon, and toast. Of course, since Ranger had called in the grocery order that was delivered, we were shit out of luck with any of that. Well, that wasn't entirely fair. We could have the pancakes if we wanted to make them from scratch, or toast and eggs if we wanted to use the egg substitute and whole-grain bread that were on hand. As far as bacon and doughnuts, though, there wasn't even a hint of anything like that in the house.

I let out a deep sigh as I opened the fridge and grabbed the container of yogurt. Using a spoon from the silverware drawer, I stirred it up before putting a tablespoonful in a bowl, and then I took out a few strawberries and grabbed a banana from the counter before going to my seat at the table. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was food and beggars couldn't be picky.

We sat in silence as we ate. Neither one of us was fully functional at this time of the morning. I took my last sip of coffee and glanced at the clock on the wall. "We need to get going if we're going to get there on time."

In answer, Lula grunted.

We headed out to the car, and in no time, I was pulling into the parking lot to the First Miami Bank. I made sure the car was locked once we'd climbed out, although I really doubted anyone in their right mind would want the piece-of-shit car.

As we walked inside, I took a good look at the outfit that Lula had donned for the day. She had strappy heels similar to the ones I was wearing, but that's the only thing we had in common. Lula was a good two inches shorter than my five feet seven inches, and she outweighed me by nearly a hundred pounds. She referred to herself as a big beautiful black woman, and I had yet to meet the person who was willing to tell her different. Of course, that didn't stop her from trying to squeeze her plus-sized frame into a size-two spandex, defying the laws of nature. The leopard-print blouse that displayed an abundance of cleavage clashed with the zebra-striped mini skirt that came inches below her ass. As long as she didn't bend over, she'd be safe from an indecent exposure charge. To round out the outfit, her hair was dyed orange today.

When we entered the bank, every eye zeroed in on Lula, but she didn't let the attention faze her in the least. She walked with her head up toward the elevator that we'd take up to the third floor, where we would meet the woman who would tell us about the job we would be doing today. The minute the doors closed and we started to move upward, Lula let out a pent-up breath and whispered, "I don't like the feel of this place. There's something off about it."

I stepped closer, and careful so as not to give anyone the impression we were talking, I asked her, "Do you want to scrap this job?"

There was a long pause before she lifted her head and gave me a fake smile. "Let's go see what they have for us to do."

I was torn. While a part of me was relieved that she'd agreed to go forward with this job since we needed the money, another part of me was just as leery of what this day was going to hold. My stomach felt like it was tied in knots, and I too had the feeling that something was dangerously off about this place.

Once we'd filled out the paperwork, we were sent back down to the main floor of the bank to see the head teller, Carla Stanton. She was less than thrilled with having new employees, if the scowl on her face was anything to go by. She set us up at adjoining windows, and although she treated me with indifference, Lula could do nothing right in the woman's eyes.

We'd only been working for a couple of hours when Lula looked over and caught my gaze. From the look on her face, I knew that she was at the end of her rope with this woman, and if Carla Stanton didn't get out of her face soon, the woman was going to be planted six feet under.

By some supreme effort, Lula managed to make it through until our lunch break at one-thirty.

Carla forced out a breath and studied us as if we were bugs under a microscope. "I suppose you two will want to go to lunch together. Just make sure you are back here in forty-five minutes."

Lula smiled at her and then rushed over to where I was, grabbed my hand, and hurried me out of the building. "Oh, sweet hell! I didn't think I was going to make it till lunch. Now we got forty-five minutes of sweet freedom before we have to be back under the watchful eye of Cruella de Vil."

Shaking my head, I said, "I don't know what her problem is. It's like you can't do anything right. Maisie in personnel was so sweet compared to that pit viper."

"Yeah, and Maisie wasn't no picnic either."

I spotted a little dinner across the street and pointed it out to Lula. "Why don't we eat there? At least it's within walking distance and we won't have to worry about finding a parking place when we get back."

"Okay, but they better have real food there."

We walked across the street, and when we stepped inside the dive, I regretted my suggestion of eating there. Unfortunately, there weren't any other places close by and Lula and I were both starving. We found a table not too far from the door and looked at the menu sitting on the table. By the time the waitress came over, we both knew what we wanted to eat.

A voluptuous blonde stopped at our table and popped the bubble she'd just made. The name tag on her uniform said Brenda. She looked us over like we weren't worthy of being customers in such a fine place as this. Her tone was condescending as she asked, "What can I get for you?"

Lula ordered first. "I want the never-ending chicken plate and a Coke."

Brenda's eyes ran over Lula, and the look in her eyes wasn't friendly. She turned to me and asked, "And for you?"

"I'd like the meatloaf dinner and a Coke."

"All right." She sashayed over to the window and hollered out the order before grabbing the drinks and setting them on the table so that they sloshed over. "You two aren't from around here, are you?"

Lula frowned. "No. Why?"

Brenda leaned over and lowered her voice to a whisper. "There are certain parts of the city that have higher standards than other parts of the city." She looked at me and went on. "You fit." She turned to Lula. "But there is no way that you fit in to this part of town. Over the past year, this part of town has lightened considerably." She turned to look at Lula. "It's not safe around here for certain people."

With that, she left our table.

Lula looked at me. "Is she telling us what I think she's telling us?"

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down gently. "I think so."

She sighed. "I don't think we'll be at that bank job for long, then."

I smiled wryly. "I think that's a given."

Our food arrived a few minutes later, and it was better than I'd thought it would be. Once we finished, we paid the ticket and headed back over to the bank. Both of us were distracted on the way back. It wasn't until we stepped inside and a masked man turned, pointing the gun in his hand directly at us, that we became aware there was even anything going on inside the bank.

"Down on the floor," came from behind the mask.

My mind went blank.

The gun waved in the air in front of me, and once again the masked robber said, "Get down on the floor, now!"

My gaze went to Lula. Her eyes were wide, and she was looking at the gun like she was in a daze. Suddenly, without warning, her hands went up in the air and she started running. The guy with the gun pointed his weapon in her direction. I threw myself against him to throw off his aim, and we both went down. He scrambled up and aimed the gun at me as Lula continued screaming and running around the lobby.

I tried to make myself as small as I could, and when the robber snarled at me, I said, "You told me to get down. I was just doing what you told me."

"I didn't tell you to land on me, bitch! I should shoot you right now and teach you a lesson."

I forced myself not to look at him. I'd already categorized everything about him anyway. There was yelling, and then someone was pounding on something metallic. I turned to see two masked robbers beating on the vault. The man close to me yelled to his friends, "What are you two doing?"

"She ran into the vault and locked herself in."

A low snarl sounded close to me, and I knew the man in the mask wasn't happy. He seemed to forget that I was there as he mumbled, "This wasn't supposed to happen. Easy in, get the money, and we'd be out before that security company or the police could get here. Guaranteed. No one said anything about a crazy black bitch. We were just supposed to show everyone that the colored security people can't protect nothing."

Carla moved over close to the masked guy near me and whispered, "Is this a joke? He told me you guys were professionals! I'm risking everything helping him out, and he gives me the three stooges?"

"Hey, it was that black woman who ruined everything. Once that vault's opened, she's dead."

"That's just it, Einstein! There is no opening that vault. It's time-locked now because the alarm was tripped so the security company would respond. We need them here so it looks like they're incompetent."

"So where are they?!"

"I don't know!"

I looked around, taking mental photographs of everyone in the bank. Suddenly, I felt a zap of electricity on the back of my neck and looked up to see Ranger on one of the upper floors taking stock of what was going on. I knew that from his vantage point, he wouldn't be able to see that there were three men. My hand moved, and I put up three fingers and then slowly raised a fourth. Although he was too far away for me to be certain, I thought he gave a slight nod of his head.

He ducked back out of sight, but it wasn't long—maybe two or three minutes max—when I saw a door open in my peripheral vision. Ranger and Tank quickly moved into position to take out the two guys together, and when the masked man closest to me aimed his gun at them, I kicked out with my foot and brought the man down. By the time he was up and had his weapon drawn, Ranger was there to take him down. Once all three of them were handcuffed, the front door was opened and the police swarmed into the building.

Ranger stepped over beside me. "You said four. Who's the fourth?"

"Carla Stanton. She helped them by giving them information. There's more I need to tell you about this, but not here."

He nodded. "Where's Lula?"

My eyes widened. "She locked herself in the vault. It's time locked. We can't wait till it opens tomorrow morning… She'll run out of oxygen."

Ranger frowned. "I'll see if there's something that can be done to get it open."

I fidgeted. "I can get it open."

Ranger looked at me like I had three heads. One eyebrow went up as he asked, "Just how are you going to do that?"

I let out a sigh. "It's easy, really. All I have to do is convince the clock that it's nine a.m., and it will open. Can you okay it with the bank? The locking mechanism won't be hurt in any way."

He shook his head and moved over near a man in a suit. The man looked at the vault with horror, and I could hear him say, "Of course. We must do whatever we can to get her out of there."

Ranger turned and motioned me over to him. "What do you need?"

I gave him a list of supplies, and he had them for me inside of twenty minutes. It took me another fifteen minutes to put the device together, and then I attached it to the vault timer and turned it on. The clock on the vault sped up, and within ten minutes, the sound of the locks tumbling could be heard.

The door opened, and Lula came running out. "Air! I need air!" She fell into Tank's arms and fainted.

Tank lifted her in his arms and looked around.

The bank president stepped over and said, "I can't thank you enough. Unfortunately, considering your skills at getting into the vault, I'm afraid we aren't going to be able to allow you to work here. I'll give both of you a hefty bonus for your help in thwarting the robbery, but…" He raised his hands in a helpless motion and then turned away.

I let out a sigh.

Ranger placed a hand on the back of my neck. "You ready to go, Babe?"

I looked up at him. "I guess. It's not like we have a job to get back to or anything."

He grinned and wrapped his arm around me as he walked me to my car.

Tank placed Lula in the front passenger seat and belted her in.

Ranger opened my door for me, and once I was inside, he shut it and leaned down. "We'll meet you back at the house in case Lula's still out. And then you can tell me more about what you know of what went on here."

I nodded, started the car, and pulled out into traffic.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Stephanie's POV**

When we arrived back at Ranger's, Tank carried Lula inside and laid her down on the bed in her room before joining us. Somehow I'd lucked out and gotten possession of my favorite chair, which left Tank sitting beside Ranger on the sofa. Once everyone was situated, I pulled my feet up beside me on the chair and turned to look at them before saying, "Am I right in assuming the bank is one of your clients?"

Ranger's eyes narrowed. "Yes. It was one of the first businesses that came aboard when RangeMan Miami was first formed."

"From the way the man standing closest to me was talking, I think this was a setup job and Carla Stanton helped them into the bank. He was mumbling something about showing everyone that the colored security experts couldn't protect anything. Someone asked Carla to help the men get into the bank. She said that he told her the robbers were professionals. She said they needed you here to prove you were incompetent."

Ranger and Tank looked at each other. The muscles moving in their jaws was telling. It was Ranger who said, "Are you thinking what I am?"

Tank nodded. "I've been getting that feeling since we showed up."

Ranger turned to me. "Thanks for the heads-up, Babe. I'm sorry that you lost your job."

I gave him a weak smile. "Well, they couldn't have someone working there who knows how to break into the safe." I shrugged. "We weren't so comfortable in that neighborhood anyway. We'll give it a day or two and then start looking for our next job."

**Ranger's POV**

We left the house and headed to RangeMan. On the way there, I called Lester and gave him a heads-up on what we were finding. I'd had a bad feeling ever since we arrived in Miami, and after hearing what Stephanie had to say, I knew we were right about the trouble we were expecting. So far, the only one to know we were in town was Chan, and he was just as anxious to keep our presence quiet as we were. For the time being, we were working out of the seventh-floor apartment. Something was going on in my building, and I was determined to get to the bottom of it. After listening to what Stephanie had to say, I had a sneaking suspicion just what that something was.

I parked in the spot Chan had given us, and we made our way to the penthouse. When we let ourselves into the apartment, Chan was there waiting for us. He was a couple of inches taller than I was, but he didn't have as much muscle. Chan was Chinese-American, and on the few missions I'd pulled him for our group, I knew he was every bit as capable as any Samurai soldier of old.

Chan nodded. "The bank president was quite impressed with how you and Tank handled the situation earlier. He called to tell me that the team I sent to protect his bank was one of the best he'd seen."

I gave a slight nod. "Everyone is still in the dark about our presence here?"

Chan did a palms-up gesture. "As far as I know. If anyone knows, they're being smart about it and not letting on. They are a bit nervous, though, that I'm spending so much time up here."

"All right. Can you give us a list of the other businesses that are questionable so Tank and I can check them out? We won't need to stop back here until we've looked into things." I turned to look Chan in the eyes. "The day we walk through the front door, be prepared for all hell to break loose."

"Will do." He handed me a piece of paper. "These are the other two places that need to be checked out. Tinley's Restaurant and Everglades Safari Park." He tapped the file on the Everglades Park before continuing, "I'm thinking you'll want to make your presence known here before going out there."

My gaze went to Tank before returning to Chan. "All right. We'll check out Tinley's within the next couple of days, and then we'll see you after that."

We all stood and shook hands. Chan led us to the elevator and rode down with us to the garage before returning to the fifth floor, where his office was.

Tank and I made our way to the rental car and headed out to meet with Hector.

**Stephanie's POV**

After two days of pounding the pavement looking for a job, Lula and I finally scored waitress jobs at Tinley's. Today was our first day, and although they didn't normally start two new people on the same day, they were making an exception for us. The uniform was black slacks and a white blouse. Lula wasn't too thrilled, claiming they were stunting her creativity, but she agreed to leave her creativity at home because we really needed this job if we wanted to make any money.

The bank president had made good on his promise to send our paycheck for the day, and he'd added a bonus for Lula thwarting the bank robbers and for me being able to get Lula out of the vault without destroying it. We'd kept out just what we needed for necessities and put the rest away for the business we were planning to open as soon as we had enough funds.

I parked in the parking lot by the dumpsters, where we'd been directed to park by the manager when he hired us, and after locking the car, we headed inside. The manager, Dwayne Harding, was waiting for us. The way he smiled at me kind of gave me the creeps, but it was the way that he looked at Lula that really made me uneasy. There was a mean look on his face that made him look like a pig with beady eyes and a smushed nose that looked like it was pressed against glass, giving it a snout appearance.

"Hilary will be training the two of you. Be sure to listen to everything she tells you." He motioned to a svelte blonde about three or four inches taller than I was, with a model's physique.

She sashayed over and simpered at Dwayne. "You wanted me, lover?"

Dwayne had a smirk on his face. "We have two trainees that I'm putting with you."

Hilary looked at each of us. The bored look when she gave me a onceover quickly turned into a scowl as she turned to Lula. Her head quickly turned to Dwayne as her mouth opened.

He put up a hand. "I'm sure you know _exactly _what needs to happen here."

Lula and I glanced at each other, but we stayed quiet. If these two thought they were going to run us off, they were mistaken.

Hilary took us on a tour of the restaurant, running over the list of things we needed to remember as she did so. Her tone was condescending at best, but we ignored her as best as we could while still taking in all of the things we were required to do for the job.

Twenty minutes later, she handed us ticket pads and told us, "You're on your own. If you run into any trouble, just give a little holler."

We nodded, and she left us in a section near one of the cash registers. Lula and I looked around the section that we would be serving. Tinley's was an upscale restaurant, where black tie was required to even make it in the door. The section of the restaurant we were covering had two huge picture windows, and although most of the area was brightened by the sun, there were a few alcoves that were in shadow.

The first few tables went pretty well, but as time passed, the clientele coming into the restaurant changed. We went from a friendly mix of races to predominately white. Although I didn't have much trouble, the groups coming in were bordering on being cruel to Lula, and it was royally pissing me off.

It was close to three thirty when the worst group came in. There were eight of them, and although they were dressed in suits, they looked like they'd be more at home in different attire. It was Lula's turn, so she went over to the table, and from my position near the order station, I could see the scowls they were giving her. When she asked them what they wanted to drink, one of the men—who looked to be the leader—put up a hand and, in a voice that carried to the other patrons, said, "I didn't give you permission to speak, _bitch_!"

Lula stiffened. I could see her jaw clench, as if she were gritting her teeth to keep the smile in place. "I was just asking what all of you wanted to drink."

Once again, the leader said, "I'll tell you when you can talk, _bitch_!"

The glint in Lula's eyes told me that if the asshole didn't stop his bullshit, she was going to go off on him, job or no job.

I moved over to the table, hoping to defuse the situation, and the closer I got to them, the more I wanted to turn and walk the other way. This group was really sending my spidey sense into hyper-drive.

I was a couple of tables away when Lula put up her hand to hold me off. Without letting her smile slip, she said, "I tell you gents what. I'm going ta go and take care of the other customers, and when you all is ready to order, then you just raise your little ole hands, and I'll come on over."

The leader—a big man nearly Ranger's size but heavier, and more because of overeating and not muscle—raised his hand, as if he was going to hit her, and I heard a low growl from nearby. I turned to see Tank and Ranger sitting in Hilary's section. From the expression on his face, I wouldn't want to run into this Tank in a dark alley unless he was coming to save me.

Ranger and Tank in suits and ties was a distracting sight, but I managed to peel my gaze away and look back over to the table full of trouble.

The hand lowered, and the man looked around him. There were a few people looking at him with unfavorable looks, and he scowled back at them until they turned back to the people at their own tables.

Lula stopped back at the ordering station where I was and said, "I don't think we gonna be working here too long."

I gave her a serious look. "We can leave right now if you want to. There's something weird going on in this town with all of these people acting the way they are."

"I'm thinking the same thing. As for leaving now, I won't give them asshats the satisfaction."

"All right. But if you change your mind, I'm with you."

At that moment, the man who'd been giving Lula so much trouble put his hand up with his thumb out and the rest of the fingers in a loose fist and made a "get over here" gesture.

Lula lifted her head and smiled, but I could see she was gritting her teeth through the smile. She winked at me and said, "Mr. High and Mighty is gonna get a lesson in everything isn't going his way."

I watched her move back toward the table, and the jerk had a smirk on his face. Of course, that smirk turned into a wicked glare when she veered away from the table and went and took care of another table first. The man at the table kept sending worried glances over to the other table, and although I was too far away to hear what he was saying, it was apparent by the movement of his mouth that he was saying something to Lula. From the glances, my guess was it had something to do with the big table.

It was at that moment that Dwayne walked into our section. He looked around, and when the man who'd been hassling Lula waved to him, Dwayne smiled and rushed over.

"Stan Hidleman, I didn't know that you were here today."

"I won't be much longer if that fat waitress doesn't get her ass in gear and get over here."

Dwayne got a snarky look on his face, and from my position, I could see him wink at Stan. "I'm sorry, gentleman. She's new."

Stan's eyes got even smaller and meaner if that was possible. "Well, maybe the boys and I'll come back at quitting time and teach her how to do her job right."

Lula stiffened, so I knew that she'd heard them, and from the growl in Tank's direction, I knew he had as well. I didn't know about anyone else, but I was sick of how these people were acting. Just as I moved to go over to the table, Lula turned and walked over to them. "Are you ready to order now?"

Stan reached over and pinched Lula's ass, hard. "I was ready ten minutes ago, _bitch_! I already told you that you needed to come when I called you."

How she did it, I don't know, but she acted as if Stan had never touched her. "So, what will you have, then?"

Stan looked around at the other men at the table and laughed. "What do you think, boys?"

They were all nodding.

Stan turned back and said, "We'll take the lobster soup. No need to bring us a bill, because it's on you." He turned to Dwayne. "Isn't that right, Dwayne?"

Dwayne laughed. "Why sure, gentleman. I'll arrange for that, seeing as how she's ignored you."

I was pissed. I looked over to where Tank and Ranger were sitting, and I could see that they were pissed too. Turning to Lula, I was in time to see her turn away from the table, and I knew we were going to be in big trouble soon. I moved quickly over to where Ranger was sitting and leaned down till my mouth was a whisper from his ear. "How quick are you at getting out of sticky situations?"

His eye dilated as he looked at me, and I felt myself blush.

"That's not what I meant."

He gave me a slow grin, and I had to check to make sure my panties were still dry. "What did you have in mind, Babe?"

I quickly looked to see where Lula was and was in time to see her carrying a whole pot of what I was guessing was lobster soup.

Dwayne's eyebrows rose, and he whistled, nudging Stan before saying, "Looks like you boys are in for a treat."

I turned back to Ranger and Tank.

Tank shook his head. "Is she going to do what I think she's going to do?"

I nodded. "Oh, yeah."

Tank grinned.

Ranger spoke softly as he said, "Go get your things, Babe, and meet us outside."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I'll get our things, but there is no way I'm missing this."

He chuckled as I hurried to the order station so I could grab our things, and then I turned to watch the runaway train named Lula on its collision course with Stan and his gang.

Lula was walking steadily toward the table, and just as she reached the table…she stumbled. The pot wavered, and she tried to right it—at least to those watching, it looked like she was trying to right it—and then _whoosh_! Somehow, she managed to hit every single one of them at the table, as well as Dwayne, with the soup.

Stan stood with a roar and took a step toward Lula.

The minute Lula dropped the pot, I moved forward and grabbed her arm to get her attention. She seemed a little shocked, but as soon as she saw me, she grinned, and the two of us took off running and didn't look back. Well, at least not until we got to the car. Then we looked back to see if anyone was following us. My heart was racing as I wondered what was going on inside the restaurant. Then I started worrying because I had this sinking feeling that Tank and Ranger were delaying the group so that Lula and I could get away.

I looked over at Lula and asked, "What do you think?"

She had a worried look on her face. "We can't just leave them."

Just then, a group of motorcycles pulled into the lot. Lula's eyes widened and she said, "I got an idea." And she took off across the lot.

From where I was standing, I saw her waving her arms, and her mouth was moving, so I knew she was giving them a story. Suddenly, all of the bikers got off their bikes, and the leader gave a nod of his head. He gave a signal, and they entered the restaurant en masse.

Lula hurried back over to where I was standing and said, "Come on. We gotta get out of here. Don't worry about the guys. Jericho—he's the leader—promised me that they'd make sure the guys got out a there. I told him ta tell Tank and Ranger we'd meet them at the house."

Frowning, I asked, "How do we know we can trust them?"

She frowned. "Well, shit! I didn't think of that."

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down on it gently as I debated what we were going to do. Just then, Jericho and the group of bikers exited the restaurant, along with Ranger and Tank, and they had Stan and his group by their collars. Watching the guys move was like poetry in motion as they dealt with the assholes.

When they had the group handcuffed, Ranger jogged over to my car and leaned down with a grin on his face. "Show's over, Babe. You need to head back to the house."

"We couldn't leave until we were sure your two were going to be okay."

He grinned. "We're just fine."

Lula was bobbing her head up and down. "You're welcome."

Ranger's eyebrow went up, but he didn't say anything else.

Once he stood back, I started the car and put it in gear. I gave him a finger wave and said, "See you later."

It didn't take long for me to get back to the house. Once there, I did a lot of pacing while my mind raced with all of the incidents from the past few days. I figured that Ranger being at the bank was work related, and he'd confirmed it, but how the hell did they show up just when we needed them all the time?

I was on my seventh or eighth circuit through the house when the tingling on the back of my neck told me that Ranger was near. I stopped to take in my surroundings and jumped when a hand landed on my shoulder. "Geez! Make some noise, why don't you? You scared me out of ten years growth."

There was a huge grin on Ranger's face. "You need to be more aware of your surroundings, Babe."

My eyes narrowed. "Spill it."

One eyebrow went up, but other than that, there was no reaction from him.

I forced out a pent-up breath and said, "Just how is it that you two show up at the exact moment that we start working somewhere?"

He stood there staring at me for several moments, and I had the feeling he was weighing how much he could trust me. Just when I thought he might ignore my question, he said, "You already know that the bank is one of my clients. I was there talking with the owner, who happens to also be the president, when the silent alarm sounded. I was assessing the situation when you and Lula walked in the front door."

I studied him for a moment but knew that he was telling me the truth. "Okay, so the bank was a fluke. What about JoAnne's and Tinley's?"

Ranger grimaced. "JoAnne's is one of the new businesses that have been added to RangeMan in the last six months. I was there to assess what kind of business it was and if the security was adequate."

My eyes narrowed. "And you had no idea Lula and I were working there? I mean, when I saw you, it looked like you were looking for someone."

He gave a slight nod. "I knew you were there. Tank and I were watching the feed when you and Lula went into the place and decided that we'd check out the business then, rather than when we'd originally planned. Once we arrived on the scene, we checked the feed before I had it switched, and we saw that the two of you seemed to be in trouble. I_ was_ looking for you when we entered the building."

"And Tinley's?"

Once again, he gave a slight nod. "Another client. However, Tank and I were technically there before you and Lula arrived."

My eyes narrowed on him. "Technically?"

The corner of his mouth lifted. "The owner is a friend of mine. He called and asked me to come by and eat lunch at the restaurant. He had some concerns about his business. It was on my list of places to check out, so I bumped it to today and put the other place we have to visit off for a couple of days."

"So when you walked into that building, you had no idea Lula and I would be working there?"

He hesitated. "Rafael told me he had a couple of waitresses starting and he didn't see a problem with the one, but he had reservations regarding the other one because of some of the things that he'd been hearing about. I asked him for more details, and he gave me your names." He shrugged. "We were there and seated before you were shown to your station."

I grimaced. "In light of what happened, I'm glad you guys were there. What happened after we left?"

Ranger chuckled. "Things were getting a bit heated until your friend, Lula, sent Jericho and his friends in to _help_ _out_."

My eyes widened. "You know the guy she sent in?"

The smile on his face was a full two thousand watts. "We were in the Rangers together. I'd asked him to stop by the restaurant with some friends so that Tank and I could see how they were treated as customers. He was totally floored that Lula went up to him and asked them to come in and make sure we didn't get hurt." His eyes twinkled as he added, "She told them she hadn't gotten to do the nasty with the big guy yet so they _was to make sure he didn't wind up with anything broken before they could hit the sheets._ Jericho lost no time in ribbing Tank once we got the group taken care of."

My hand went up to cover my mouth. "Tank's never going to live that down, is he?"

He leaned close as he whispered, "He's lucky the rest of the A Team wasn't here to hear about it, or it would be a lot worse."

"The A Team?"

"That's what I call my core team. They're the ones running RangeMan Trenton while Tank and I are here."

I nodded. "I think Lula and I are going to take a day or two off before we start looking for another job."

Ranger touched his forefinger to my nose. "Take as much time as you want, Babe."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Stephanie's POV**

When the alarm sounded at six a.m., thoughts of turning over and going back to sleep were warring with the conscientious part of my brain that told me that it was time for Lula and me to go to work and change the string of bad luck we'd been having with the jobs we'd taken over the past several weeks. I blamed my parents for the fact that, instead of going back to dreamland, I crawled out of bad and headed for the bathroom to get ready. Their propensity for making Val—my older sister—and me take responsibility for our actions growing up had given me the code of ethics I lived by.

It had taken Lula and me three days after the fiasco at Tinley's to find another job, and today was going to be our first day. Not sure what exactly our jobs would entail, I decided to put my hair up in a ponytail, and I would wear the Rangers cap I had in my bag once we got to the park. Jeans, socks, my Doc Martins, and a pale-blue T-shirt were what I'd chosen for my uniform of the day. My Coach bag was on the dresser, and I grabbed it on my way out of the room. Experience had taught me to always be prepared, so there was a change of clothes stuffed in there, as well as all of my other paraphernalia.

Lula was already at the table, although she looked like she was still half asleep.

My eyes widened as I took in her appearance. She was dressed in lime-green leggings that looked more like skin-tight capris, a bubblegum-pink spandex tank top over a black spandex cropped tee, lemon-yellow socks, and neon-purple sneakers. Her platinum-blonde hair had neon ribbons tied to it all over her head.

I grabbed a cup and filled it with coffee before joining her. "Is that what you're wearing today?"

Her eyes narrowed, "Are you dissing my outfit?"

I hurried to assure her, "No! Not at all."

"I hope they have a nice office job I can work at."

I didn't think they were going to have us working in the office, but I didn't want to tell her that. Moving over to the counter, I put bread in the toaster, and when it popped up, I added peanut butter and olives. After cutting it in half, I made my way to the table and sat down across from her.

She eyed my sandwich for a minute before she got up and looked in the fridge. She took out one of the containers that held leftovers from our meal the night before. After dishing up a healthy portion onto a plate, she stuck it in the microwave and nuked it for several seconds. When the timer dinged, she brought her plate over to the table, where she dug in with gusto.

Once she was finished, we headed to the garage where my latest piece-of-shit car was located. I'd bought the ancient Pontiac Ventura before we'd left Trenton to come to Miami. I figured as long as it was dependable, it wouldn't matter what it looked like. Besides, I tended to have bad luck with keeping cars, and I wasn't willing to put too much money into a vehicle when chances were I wouldn't have it more than a couple of months. This car had lasted me close to three months, and I was equal parts pleased it had lasted so long and nervous as hell because each day was tempting fate with my car karma.

On entering the garage, I had a feeling that someone had been in my car. How that was possible when it was parked in the garage and I had the only key was a mystery, but I had a feeling that the simple car lock would be child's play for Ranger.

Climbing into the car, I knew I was right. There was a note on my seat, along with a garage remote. I lifted the note and read:

_I'm making it easy for you, Babe. Here is the garage remote so you won't have to override my system anymore. I'll be at the office. If you need anything, just call this number. _

It was signed: _Ranger_.

A smile slipped onto my face as I saved the number he'd given into my phone before I carefully folded the note and placed it in the glove compartment, along with the remote opener. Fastening my seat belt, I reversed us out of the garage and we got under way.

Normally, the trip to the Everglades Safari Park would take only forty-five minutes to navigate. Lula and I made the trip in an hour and a half. That was one of the reasons we had to be up so early. My POS car had an aversion to going speed limit for some reason. I'd had it to several mechanics, and they assured me there was nothing wrong with the car…no reason it shouldn't be able to go fifty to seventy miles an hour. They were baffled by the fact the car refused to go beyond forty-five miles an hour, and the longer you drove the car, the slower it would go.

When I pulled into the employee parking lot, there was one spot at the back of the lot still available. I was able to coast into the slot, and before I could turn off the car, it died on its own.

Seeing we still had time to get to the building that housed the gift shop and restaurant, we quickly made our way there.

Tyler Hunt was there waiting for us. He was a very nice-looking man with warm brown eyes, curly brown hair that was cut to show his ears, and he had a line of sideburns that grew toward his chin in a goatee of sorts, along with a well-groomed mustache. His eyebrows were very bushy, but you could tell he took time to get his appearance just so. Although Tyler worked at the park and therefore would spend many hours outdoors, he didn't have much of a tan, which led me to believe he wore something to protect his skin from the sun. He had a lean yet muscular build as well as a take-charge attitude that let you know exactly where you stood with him.

He smiled as we walked toward him, and when we were within touching distance, he held out his hand. "Miss Plum, Miss Banks. It's a pleasure to see both of you again."

Returning his smile, I placed my hand in his. He held it a little too long for my comfort but not long enough to make a big deal over it. My smile slipped, though, as he caressed my hand before letting go.

Once my hand was free, I clasped them behind my back, having no intention of letting Tyler touch me again. My stomach was starting to feel queasy, and bad things happened when that occurred. My gaze went to Lula when Tyler went to the office to get our forms that we would have to fill out.

She frowned at me before whispering, "What's going on, Steph? You're paler than you normally are."

I leaned over to whisper, "I have a bad feeling about this guy. He seemed like a totally different person the last time we met, but he's really creeping me out now."

She tilted her head to the side. "I don't recall the face hair when we saw him a couple days ago. Does face hair grow that fast?"

She was right. When we'd had our initial interview, there was no facial hair on the man. Shaking my head, I told her, "I don't know. Maybe we should ask the guys tonight." Then as an afterthought, I added, "I think I'll do some investigating as well."

She bobbed her head in agreement.

Tyler rejoined us with two clipboards in his hand. "Here's the last of the paperwork, ladies. Once you're done with this, give it to Mary. She'll put it in your files."

We moved over to a table and took the time to fill out the information. It didn't take long, and once we'd given the information to Mary, she smiled shyly and leaned in to whisper, "Don't worry. No one gets into my files."

A cold chill raced down my spine as I gave her a weak smile. Lula and I made our way over to where Tyler was waiting to show us where we would be working that day.

We followed him through the building to a side patio that had several tables and chairs set up.

He waved a hand as he smiled at us and said, "There's going to be a wedding here this morning, and we need these tables turned into a bride's vision of loveliness. You have three hours to get all the decorations into place before the wedding party will be arriving."

Taking a look around, I determined that although we'd have to work quickly, the task wasn't insurmountable. First thing was to get the tablecloths into place and tacked down with the flower sprays that were going to decorate each table.

We'd just put the finishing touches on the last table when the first guests started arriving. Something blue flew past me, and I heard Lula squeal beside me. I turned to see what was wrong, and there was a blue jay playing tug of war with one of the ribbons in her hair. Just when she'd managed to get the ribbon away from the jay, another one appeared and went to town on another one of the ribbons. Before either of us knew what was happening, a swarm of birds was attacking the ribbons.

In an effort to get away from the birds, Lula tried covering her head, but the determined jays weren't giving up. One of them managed to successfully get the ribbon out of her hair, and that seemed to encourage the others, so they appeared to redouble their efforts.

Lula screeched, "Get 'em away. They're gonna kill me like in the killer bird movie."

I looked around and found a broom over near the side of the building. I hurried over, grabbed it, and raced back to where Lula was struggling to get away from the birds. I swung and connected with one of the blue birds. It flew through the air and landed in the seven-tier wedding cake that had just been wheeled out.

I stopped in stunned horror, but Lula's screams for help had me focusing back on her, and I went back to swinging at the birds. When I'd finally freed her from the birds, we turned to face the music.

There in front of us were somewhere in the neighborhood of about a hundred people, splattered with a mix of wedding cake, flowers, and stunned birds.

I winced as the shrill voice of Babs Nightingham—whom we'd met when we filled out our applications—demanded, "What is the meaning of this?" Not waiting for an answer, she continued, "Do you know how much money it cost for all of this? You've ruined it all! How could you?"

One of the guests left the group and made his way over to us. He was somewhere around sixty or seventy, and from the look of him, I got the impression this man wasn't to be messed with. He kind of reminded me of a few of the mob bosses in Trenton…the ones who you left alone unless you wanted to be fitted for cement overshoes.

His blue eyes were twinkling when they met mine, and his voice was gravelly as he said, "That's the most fun I've had in months, girlie." He turned to Babs, his eyes going steely as he continued, "I'm willing to pay extra for this. I'll keep you in mind for the next family function as well." He turned, winking at me before turning back to Babs once again and saying, "As long as girlie here is still working here."

Babs's mouth opened and shut like a floundering fish. She finally seemed to get control of herself as she replied, "Of course. I'm just glad we could offer you…entertainment."

The old man looked like a shark that had just swallowed his lunch. Chuckling, he turned and walked back toward the other guests.

Babs turned on Lula and me, her eyes narrowed in anger. "You two get cleaned up." She smiled. "I have just the job for you." With that, she turned and strode away.

We made our way inside and slipped into the bathroom to clean up.

I didn't need to do much in the way of cleanup—a couple of spots where frosting landed on me was all that I'd gotten. Lula, on the other hand, looked like the bride of Frankenstein with her makeup smeared, her hair standing on end from the birds pulling at it, and splotches of frosting mixed with bird poop dotted her clothes.

Five minutes was all it took me to get rid of the evidence, while Lula had to change out her tops. Luckily, she'd brought extras like I had. When she took out the perfume bottle, I quickly gathered my things and hurried to the door. "I'll wait for you outside."

When she joined me fifteen minutes later, the smell was so strong, I waved my hand in front of me so I could breathe. Lula loved Obsession, and she wasn't stingy when she sprayed it. We made our way to Babs's office and waited for Mary to tell us to go in. Of course, instead of allowing us entrance into her plush office, she sent out a note telling us to report to the feed-detail team.

Mary winced as she handed me the note. "I'm so sorry."

I asked, "Where's the feed-detail team located?"

"They work out of the animal-control building. Go out the back door and take a left. There's a red path that you'll follow to take you there."

We followed her directions, which led us away from the area where most of the guests were. The building was one of the worst in terms of upkeep. Back in this area, it looked as if nothing had been touched since the park was first built. As we neared the main building, a couple of men stepped out. They were big, burly guys with tons of muscle. They seemed like nice guys—at least, they didn't give me any reason to think they weren't on the up and up.

I could see they were giving us the onceover as we neared them. The one on the right spoke up, saying, "This area is restricted for employees only, miss."

Grinning, I responded, "We just started today. Babs told us to report to the feed-detail team."

He chuckled. "What did you do to upset her?"

Rolling my eyes, I shrugged as I told him, "It might have had something to do with the wedding reception we were setting up for. A bunch of birds attacked my friend here, and I was just trying to get them away from her."

Their eyes widened. The man beside him spoke up. "And you're still alive?"

Lula's eyes narrowed. "You telling me those are killer birds and you left them loose to fly around and attack poor unsuspecting folks?"

The second man shook his head. "Not at all. It's who the wedding reception was for; that's why we were asking."

I shrugged again. "An elderly gentleman made a comment about this being the most fun he's had in a while and said he'd be doing business with Babs again. After that, she told us to clean up and come to her office."

The first guy grinned. "That explains it." He reached out his hand. "I'm Steve Minors, and this is Lamont Truman. We're the feed detail. Looks like you'll be feeding the animals with us."

Lula's eyes bugged out. "What you mean, feeding the animals? You mean like we gonna be feeding them gators and snakes they have here abouts?"

Steve nodded. "Along with all the other animals. Most of the other groups feed the animals up around here, but we'll be going along the path where the guests aren't allowed. We'll start with the gators, then move onto the snakes, and then head back this way."

Lula shuddered. "I don't like the sound of that."

Lamont grinned. "Don't worry, ma'am. We'll be there with you to make sure you don't come to any harm."

Uh-oh.

Lula plopped her hands on her ample waist. "What you call me?"

As if he sensed his danger, Lamont swallowed hard before whispering, "Uh…ma'am?"

"Uh-huhn. I thought that's what you said. Didn' your momma done teach you how ta treat a lady? Ma'aming me when any fool with eyes in his head can see I'm not even old enough to be a ma'am." Lifting her chin in the air, she turned to head off.

A loud sound, somewhere between a growl and a roar, had her jumping and running back to us. She clamped on to Lamont's arm as her gaze darted at the surrounding area. "What was that?"

Lamont threw his head back and laughed. "That was old Sadie. She's the oldest gator on record for the park. Something got to her a couple of nights ago and chewed her up pretty badly. We were able to save her, though, and she's in that penned area over there while she recuperates."

Lula didn't look convinced. "That didn't sound like any gator to me."

I had to admit that I agreed with her. The sound we heard sounded wilder somehow and infinitely more dangerous.

Wanting to get this day over, I asked, "So, where are we going first?"

Steve motioned to an airboat situated on the water. "We're going into Swamp Alley. Everything will be just fine if you remember to keep your hands and feet in the boat and don't fall overboard."

Lula and I looked at each other.

Steve took the controls as the rest of us took our seats.

I was amazed at the raw beauty of the land as we made our way through the Everglades. The wildness of the land and animals that we could see from the airboat had me appreciating nature in a whole new light. It wasn't long before Steve was slowing down and guiding us into a cove. When we got close to the dock, Lamont jumped from the boat to the dock and tied the boat to secure it.

Steve turned to where Lula and I were sitting and said, "One of you needs to go and help him."

Lula took hold of her seat, and from the expression on her face, I knew that no one was going to get her off that boat until we were back where we started.

I got up and followed in the direction where Lamont had disappeared. Not being as tall as the other man—coupled with the fact that I wasn't overly athletic—it was a bit tricky jumping from the boat to the dock, but I made it.

There was a building he had gone into, and when I joined him, he held a finger to his mouth and pointed to where a swarm of baby alligators were devouring the pieces of meat that he'd tossed out to them. A swishing noise behind me had me turning to see a pair of glowing beady eyes closing in on my location. I scrambled over to where Lamont was standing and, in my haste, managed to unbalance him so that he landed on the ground.

His face paled as his eyes widened. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach because the sound I heard as he hit the ground sounded suspiciously like the sound a bone makes when it breaks.

Keeping Lamont between me and the glowing beady eyes, I whispered, "Can you stand?"

He let out a sigh. "I can stand, but there's no way I can walk. We need to get out of here…fast. Old Nellie will only tolerate our presence until the babies are done eating."

Swallowing hard, I asked, "What happens when she's had enough of us?"

He looked me in the eyes. "She'll teach them how to get their own food."

_Shit!_

Panicking, not sure how I was going to get Lamont out of here and knowing I couldn't just leave him in here while I ran to safety, I looked around for anything we could use. There was a large stick that looked sturdy enough, so I edged over to grab it before hurrying back to the man on the ground.

"Okay. I'm going to help you up, and then you can use this stick as a makeshift crutch."

He grimaced. "It's worth a try."

I knew I wasn't the athletic type, but getting Lamont up onto his feet was a real struggle. We had a couple of setbacks where he fell back down, and once I was taken down with him, but I was motivated by fear and self-preservation. Finally getting him into a standing position, we started moving slowly.

A growling noise had us glancing back at Nellie to see she was getting tired of our presence.

Lamont looked down at me. "Run. I'll keep up."

Not needing to be told twice, I did just that and managed to get us through the door so he could throw the bolt just in time to keep Nellie's powerful jaws from clamping onto us.

Moving just a bit slower, we made it to the airboat, where Steve helped to get Lamont into the boat. Once he was settled, I looked around for a makeshift splint. One look at his ankle, and I was leaning over so that my breakfast could make a reappearance. I leaned back an instant before powerful jaws came up out of the water and snapped together.

Sitting with my knees bent in front of me, I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my forehead on my knees.

Lula spoke up softly from her seat, where she was still seated.

I looked up at her and asked, "What?"

Her eyes darted to me, "He told us to keep everything inside the boat. Girl, that means your head, too."

I put my head back on my knees and closed my eyes. "How soon can we get off this ride?"

Lamont grimaced. "This circuit takes two hours."

I shook my head. "You don't have two hours. That's a compound fracture, and you're losing blood."

There was a note of panic in Steve's voice as he asked, "He's losing blood?"

Lifting my head, I glanced at the man driving. "Yeah. It's not gushing, but it's steady."

"Oh, man. We need to get back."

Something about his demeanor was spooking me. On a hunch, I asked, "Do I take it that bleeding out here isn't a good thing?"

Steve nodded. "You'd be right. That beast that came out of the water is probably following us because he scented the blood."

"So we need to go back."

Steve nodded. "We will. But we can't go back the way we came. That's the blood-free zone. The most dangerous of the animals are in that stretch."

"How long will it take us if we don't go back that way?"

Steve looked at me, resignation in his eyes. "That's why it will take two hours."

My mind raced for possible solutions. I turned to Lula. "Do you have your stun gun?"

She nodded.

I held out my hand. "Give it to me." I turned to Steve. "Take us back the way we came."

Our eyes met for several seconds before the boat started turning. The scene in front of us came straight from one of my darkest nightmares. The water was heavily populated with alligator heads that seemed to be watching us. It reminded me of the scene in _Jurassic Park_, when the Velociraptors were hunting the humans.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Stephanie's POV**

The airboat slowly made its way toward where the congregation of alligators was waiting. I hurriedly dug through my bag for the metal pieces I needed if we were going to get out of this and have a chance to make it back to the maintenance building where we started from. The trick would be in getting the alligators to swallow these little buggers so that I could use the stun gun.

I turned to Steve and asked, "Do you have any food on the boat?"

He shook his head, "Not really. Just a few snacks in the cooler over there."

Moving over to the built-in cooler, I opened it to see there were some mini corndogs. Although I wondered about the practicality of having these in a cooler on an airboat with no way of heating them up, I chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth as I grabbed the bag and moved over to where Lula was sitting. "Help me put these in here."

"You gonna waste these on them gators? I'm kind of hungry myself and could stand a snack."

I shook my head. "We're going to need every one we have. We're going to throw them in the water so the alligators will eat them. It's our only chance of getting through this area and back to where we need to be."

Lula sighed. "All right. But when we get back, I'm getting me something to snack on. I'm starving."

We moved quickly, and once the food was ready, I handed a bag to Lula and told her, "You throw it out on this side, and I'll take the other side."

Lamont nodded his head, indicating the bag in my hand. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Smiling weakly, I answered, "Pray this works."

The sight of the alligators snapping their jaws in the air to catch the mini corndogs was a sight to see—one I was hoping never to see again. The food didn't last long, and I wasn't sure nearly enough of the beasts had sufficient metal in their system for this to work, but it was our only chance.

I grabbed the stun gun and made my way to the side of the boat. We were closing the distance when one of the gators headed right for us. That seemed to be what the others were waiting for, because suddenly, the rest of them were on a collision course with the boat.

I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second and prayed that what I was about to do would work. I juiced the stun gun, waited till the beasts were within the target area, and then quickly tied the trigger so that it would remain on while I lowered it by the string into the water.

The minute the stun gun hit the water, there was violent thrashing, as if all of the alligators were suddenly having seizures.

Steve swore. "Son of a bitch! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. Look at them."

I suggested, "Hit the gas. The juice won't last long, and we want to be a long way from here when they get control of themselves."

We were suddenly racing through the water on our way back to our starting point. Just when the dock was in sight, I spotted a body moving through the water toward the boat. It seemed that one of the group had broken free of the electrical shock that we'd delivered to the congregation, and it was now headed after us.

Lamont took his cell out of his pocket and made a call.

Sirens sounded, and several Jeeps came rocketing toward the spot where we would be docking. As we raced to the docking bay, two of the men got out of the vehicles and took up a stance at the water's edge with rifles lifted to their shoulders. About that time, an ambulance pulled up and a gurney was taken from the back and brought over to where the boat came to a stop.

The EMTs boarded and helped Lamont of the boat before making sure he was settled on the gurney.

Shots rang out, and I turned to see the men on the bank shooting at the water in front of the alligators. Once we were all off the boat and safe, they secured the area while we moved up to the main building.

As we got closer, I saw Babs standing there, as if she was waiting to see who had created all the fuss. She frowned as we came into view, and then she turned and flounced back into the building.

Entering the building, it felt as if we'd been sent to the principal's office. Lula and I stopped before the taller woman. She was a good three inches or so taller than I was, with her blonde hair cut just above her neck with the bangs on either side of her part longer in front than the rest of her hair. Her ice-blue eyes bored into us, and the way her mouth turned down into a frown looked like it was a natural part of her features.

Her frosty voice matched her eyes as she said, "What is it with you two? You create chaos, but by some miracle, you come out of this in a way that I can't fire you. You electrocuted numerous alligators, which should be a criminal offense, but unfortunately, they are no longer an endangered species, so I can't get you out that way. I could just let you go because of the mess, but you managed to save President Truman's great-great-grandson. As much as I'd like to, I can't fire you. However, I can send you to clean up the reptile house. Of course, if snakes bother you…you could quit."

_Snakes? _

I hated the very thought of them, but I was determined not to give the woman in front of us the satisfaction of driving me away from this job. We needed the money this job would bring us. My gaze caught Lula's, and I knew she was as freaked out about the snakes as I was. We just nodded at Babs and left to do our work.

Before we got out of the building, Mary rushed up to us, stopping us just before we got to the door. There was a look of panic on her face as she whispered, "Please tell me you aren't going to the snake swamp."

"Why?"

She looked around, possibly to make sure that we weren't being observed. "The snakes are disappearing. Not all of them—just the most venomous ones. Three employees have died of snake bite in the last three weeks alone."

Lula and I looked at each other, both of us swallowing hard. I turned back to Mary. "Thank you for the warning. We'll be fine, though. We'll stick together and keep our eyes open."

She looked like she wanted to argue with us but nodded before reaching into her pocket and taken out a medallion. "Here. This is a Saint Benedict medal. It will protect you from the snakes."

"No, you might need this."

She shook her head. "Not as much as you will going into that death trap."

It bothered me that she was this opposed to us going in there, yet Babs seemed to have no problem with assigning us this task. I turned to look back toward the office we'd just left and noticed that the blonde was on the phone. She turned in our direction, and a smile creased her face. Was she setting us up? If so, maybe we would need the medal more than Mary at this point.

I turned back to Mary and smiled. "Thank you. I think we'll take you up on your offer. I'll get it back to you before the end of the day."

Mary looked down at the ground before she said, "No need for that. I can get another one from Pastor Mike when I go to mass tonight."

"Well, thanks, then."

We headed out of the building and made our way through the park to the snake pit. Before entering the building, we paused to take a few deep breaths.

When I went to open the door, Lula put her hand over mine and whispered, "Are you sure we want to do this? After all, we aren't exactly having a normal day here."

I bit my lip. "There are probably people all over the place. We'll hurry through the cleaning and get out."

"Snakes give me the heebie-jeebies."

"Yeah, me too. But we need the job."

"Seems ta me we could find a job that had a higher life expectancy than dealing with snakes. I'm just sayin'."

I took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, here's the deal. We continue to work here until we get another job closer to the house."

Lula pursed her lips. "I don't like it…but I'll do it."

I grinned. "When we get done here, I'll buy lunch."

Her eyes lit up at that.

When we stepped into the snake swamp, the reptilian smell was overwhelming. There was a man somewhere between forty and fifty pushing a cleaning cart. He stopped when we entered, his face splitting into a wide grin. "Howdy. You must be the help Babs said she was sending me for today."

I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not like the one when we were around Tyler that morning, but it wasn't a good feeling either. I tried to smile, but I don't think I was successful. "I'm Stephanie, and this is Lula. We were told to report here for cleanup detail."

The man's eyes seemed to take on a gleam. "Good, good. Come with me, and I'll introduce you to my precious babies."

He led us through the building in a zig-zag pattern so that by the time we got to the area where we stopped, I was lost.

When I got a good look at the area around us, my natural instinct was to scream. There was a sheet of glass in front of us, behind which there were, at a glance, twenty-six plaques denoting different species. The number of snakes slithering around on the other side of the glass had to number upwards of three hundred. It was like looking at a prism of glass. Each species was separated by walls of glass to ensure that one species wouldn't be able to wipe out another.

The old guy chuckled. "You ain't scared of these little old snakes, now are you?"

I didn't bother confirming his suspicion. "So, what is it we're supposed to do here?"

"You clean. This glass here needs washed, along with the floors and the walls in the walkway through the maze."

I was afraid he would say that.

He motioned to a smaller exhibit a short distance away. "When you finish with those, you'll be done. If you need help, come look me up. My name's Diamond Dave, the Snake Man." He gave an eerie chuckle as he ambled away.

Lula shook her head. "I don't like this place."

"Me either. Let's get this area cleaned so we can get out of here."

We went to work washing the glass. Although it would have been faster if we'd split up, we worked together. It took us a couple of hours to finish up with the larger display, and then we moved over to the poisonous species.

Lula stopped a couple of feet away. "You don't spose that glass will magically disappear and then reappear, trapping us inside, you know, like in that Harry Potter movie?"

I swallowed hard. "Let's not think about things like that. Let's just get the place cleaned so we can get out of here."

She bobbed her head up and down, then lifted her mop to start on the glass.

I knew the second before Lula connected with the glass that she was going to connect too hard. Sure enough, the metal from the mop hit the glass, and it shattered into millions of pieces. For several seconds, we stood in shock. The sight of the snakes leaving the confines of their respective cases and moving toward where we were brought us back to reality, and we both screamed.

My eyes scanned the area to see if there was a way that we could alert everyone that there was a potential disaster. A water moccasin reared back its head in preparation to striking. The only thing around that might help us was the mop. I quickly moved closer to Lula and grabbed the stick, using it to keep some distance between us and the snakes.

Lula asked, "Got any more of them little electrodes?"

"No. I used them all on the alligators."

"Why did you have them in your purse, anyway?"

"I don't think now is the time to discuss why I had them in my bag."

"Way I see it, we might not make it to tomorrow."

Letting out a sigh, I said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Look around and see if you can see a fire alarm or something."

"I don't see no lame-ass fire alarm thingee."

One of the more adventuresome snakes slithered forward. I couldn't corral him back with the others because the stick end of the mob was keeping a group of seven or eight of the slippery beasts at bay. Without taking my attention from them, I told Lula, "Find another stick or something we can use. They aren't staying together."

The lone water moccasin chose that instant to strike. I used the mop handle to bat him away from us, and he landed in the group that I'd been holding off. It was like a free for all as they all went after each other. Just at the moment that the winner separated from the fight and started moving toward us once again, we heard a whistling.

Lula lost no time in screaming. "Help! That you, Mr. Snake Man? Help! Them snakes are loose."

There was a moment of silence before the sound of running feet was heard coming our way. Diamond Dave came to a screeching halt as his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Now how did that happen?"

Lula glared. "You didn't tell us that the glass would break if we touched it."

He shook his head. "That's bullet-proof, reinforced glass. There's no way to break it."

"So how you explain it shattering like it done?" Lula asked.

Dave scratched his head. "If I wasn't seeing this with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it."

"Not to break up such exciting conversation, but these things are getting a bit restless with the status quo. Is there a way out of here so the guys who handle these things can come do their job?"

Dave hesitated, as if he knew what he was going to tell me wouldn't go over well. When he finally worked up his nerve, he said, "Well, see, about that. Umm…well, we just happen to be those people."

Lula and I shrieked in unison, "_What_?!"

Dave jumped back, startled by the loud noise. His foot went into the bucket that was sitting beside his cart. "Dang nab it! What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?"

My eyes narrowed on the old man as I turned the words back on him and said, "I could ask you the same thing. What do you mean, we have to take care of these slimy things? In case you didn't notice, these are the venomous kind."

"I know that, missy. But no one else will come in here until they're contained. Since we're locked in here till that happens, it's going to fall to us to make sure they're all rounded up."

Lula plopped her hands on her waist as she said, "Say again, because I better not be hearing you right."

Dave shrugged. "Standard procedure not to open the doors and chance letting one of the snakes loose on the public."

While the two of them were arguing, I noticed that our creepy friends were closing in on us. I interrupted them to say, "Look, we can discuss this later. Right now, what are we going to do?"

Dave took a device off his cleaning cart. "Simple. I just turn this on and zap 'em. Then you two girls will toss them in this gunny sack, and we'll put them in the spare tank over on the right."

I didn't like that idea, but if it was going to get us out of here, I was willing to bite the bullet, so to speak, and get this show on the road. "Okay. Give me the sack, and let's get started."

Dave grinned at me. "You got gumption. I like that."

He handed me the sack and turned toward the approaching cottonmouths. When he prodded one with the stick, nothing happened. He prodded the snake again, and once again, nothing happened. Dave turned to us, eyes wide as panic set in. "We're in trouble."

I handed the sack to Lula and held my hand out for the stick. "Let me see it. I have a way with electrical things."

He needed no second bidding to do as I asked. Not only that, but he moved with lightning speed so he was behind Lula and we were now the front line of defense.

I opened the end of the stick. There was a film of corroded battery acid that told me the batteries in the thing were old, possibly even the original batteries that had come with it. There wasn't time to ask a bunch of questions. I needed to focus on the weapon in my hand and devise a way that it would work.

The cleaning cart was our best source for finding something to recharge the batteries. I took a quick look to see where the snakes were and then hurried over so I could move the cart closer to us. The rearing of a head told me I wasn't going to be able to do that, so I swung and knocked the snake off the cart and quickly grabbed what I needed before scurrying back to where Lula and Dave were still standing.

Lula asked, "Can you fix it?"

I nodded, rattling off without thinking as I thought through my plan. "We're lucky. These are NiCad batteries, based on Nickel Cadmium electrochemistry. Because they're a different chemistry, they have a different voltage. Dry cells, lead/acid cells, and NiCad cells will all produce a different voltage, ranging from about one point three volts fully charged to two point one volts fully charged. These are physically the same size as carbon/zinc 'dry cells" and are made in double A, C, and other common sizes. They'll have a different lower voltage, but they'll work for our purposes."

When there was no response to what I said, I looked up to see that both Dave's and Lula's eyes were glazed over. Lula was the first to recover, asking, "But will it work?"

I grinned. "Yes. It will give us enough juice to incapacitate them long enough to get them penned up without killing them."

Quickly putting the baton back together, I then turned and started taking care of the snakes slithering closer to our location. As I knocked them out, I counted. When I touched the device to the last one, I noticed something odd. According to the sign next to the display, we had in fact collected all of the adult snakes. What was odd was that there were numerous broken eggs in the display.

I turned to look at Dave. "Now what?"

He shook his head. "We need to contact the handlers." He took out his cell phone and punched in a code.

When the doors opened and light filtered into the room where we were, there were at least twenty people dressed in protective gear. A nice-looking black man stopped beside us and asked, "How many juveniles did you see?"

Lula and I let Dave do the talking.

"We didn't see any. Just the empty eggs."

The newcomer nodded. "All right. You three go on out while we clean this up. I'm just glad there were no civilians in here when that glass shattered. I told Babs three weeks ago that there were fractures in the glass and that all it would take would be a small jar in order for us to have a disaster on our hands."

Lula's eyes narrowed.

I placed my hand on her arm. "Let's go eat lunch, and then we can deal with talking to Babs again."

"Uh-huh. I'll be talking to that blonde bitch with my fist.

**A/N: **The part about the batteries came from the internet.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Stephanie's POV**

Instead of going to Babs's office, we made our way to the restaurant. It was well past lunchtime, and if I didn't eat soon, my stomach was going to be making itself known. Besides, I'd promised Lula I'd treat her to lunch after the incident at the snake swamp.

When we walked in the door, several of the patrons turned in our direction. The looks we were generating made me think that we might not be as presentable as we'd been before entering the snake house. Right now, I was too hungry to care. We walked up to the counter, where one of the cashiers stood to take our order.

Lula licked her lips as her eyes scanned the menu board.

Figuring it might take her a few minutes, I went ahead with my order. "I'll take the burger basket and a Coke."

The cashier nodded. "Okay." She wrinkled her nose, "Would the two of you mind eating outside so you don't scare off the paying customers?"

Lula's eyes narrowed. "What you mean, the paying customers? We're paying."

The girl looked nervous. "Well, actually, since you work here, this is a free meal for you."

Frowning, I asked her, "How do you know we work here?"

She grimaced. "Only one way the two of you could get to smell _that _bad. Not that I blame you for it. We've all incurred Babs's wrath and gotten stuck working the feed detail or cleaning the snake swamp. There's only one job worse than those two combined. That's working with Tyler for the day. That dude is seriously hot, but there is something freaky off about him." She leaned forward and whispered, "The last person to spend a day with him was Mary. She's never been the same since. She won't talk about it. All she was willing to say was that she'd rather take on the alligators and snakes than get stuck alone with him again."

Lula and I looked at each other. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was close to a panic attack. Good thing we were allowed a free meal. When Lula got in theses moods, she could eat her weight in food.

She turned to the black girl at the register. "I'll take one of everything."

The girl's eyes widened, then she looked over at me, as if she were asking if she was serious.

I nodded. "She means it. Hope there isn't a limit to what's considered a meal."

The younger girl smiled. "I'm Chandra. And, as far as I know, they don't put limits on the meals. As long as your friend can sit there and eat it, the food is free."

It was at that moment that I got a whiff of the smell emanating from us. I grinned at Chandra and said, "If you can have someone bring the food out to us, we'll eat out on the patio."

"Thanks. I'll get it out to you."

Lula and I walked outside, making our way down to a little pavilion close to the water. It was a beautiful day, and the fresh air would be a welcome relief.

There were several tables and chairs, and I chose a set that would allow me a view of the water as well as the restaurant. After the day we'd had, there was no way that I wanted any more surprises.

Lula sniffed the air. "Now that she mentioned it, you do smell a bit ripe."

Without bothering to look at Lula, I replied, "That isn't me that you're smelling. I'm downwind of you. The only one you can be smelling is you. Can't you tell? There's Obsession mixed with gator and snake."

"Whatever it is, the smell is awful."

"Maybe we'll have a chance to clean up after we get done here."

Chandra brought a tray of food out to us. "Here you go ladies. Enjoy your meal." She looked around and then leaned in closer after setting the tray down. "The cook, Drago, said that he heard Babs calling Tyler to see where he was at. She told him to meet her at her office, that there were two female staff in need of his services."

Lula and I looked at each other, and then I turned to Chandra. "Thank you for warning us."

She winced. "We've all fallen under the bus with that witch. One of these days, I'm hoping someone comes along and takes her down."

I took a fry, sighing as I dipped it into ketchup. "Unfortunately, most of the people that come up against her need the job."

Chandra nodded and tapped the table. "I have to get back to work."

As we watched her leave, Lula whispered, "I don't like the sound of that blonde witch calling Tyler. Especially after Chandra said what she did about Mary. I don't know as you noticed, but Mary don't appear to have all of her rocks."

"I think our best chance is to make sure no one separates us for any reason."

Lula bobbed her head up and down. "Okee dokey."

We dug in to the food on the table, and I was just finishing my last French fry when Lula slurped down the last of her drink. Throwing the trash away, we headed for the bathroom to clean up a bit before heading to Babs's office.

Ten minutes later, I'd eliminated as much of the smell as I could and managed to make myself look presentable. Lula was still working on the smell. How she could wind up smelling more like the snakes than I did was beyond me, since I'd dealt with them the most. When she took her bottle of perfume out, I hurriedly went through the door so I wouldn't get doused with a massive spray of Obsession.

I'd barely taken two steps out of the bathroom when I happened to notice Babs walk into the restaurant. Although she was on her own, I had a weird feeling in my stomach that this wasn't going to end well. I tried to obscure her view of me by blending in with a potted plant, and I thought I might have succeeded until Lula stepped through the bathroom door and I was overcome with a massive dose of Obsession.

I turned to her and asked, "What did you do? Empty the bottle?"

She pouted. "I only put on a few squirts. But when I was putting it away, the bottle broke. It soaked into my purse."

A high-pitched woman's voice spoke from behind us. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you. You should have reported to my office after that fiasco at the snake swamp."

Her face was pinched in displeasure.

I gave a half shrug. "We figured we'd eat lunch first."

"Lunch? You call what Two-Ton Nellie here ate lunch? I'm giving you two one more chance. I've called Tyler. He'll be showing you to the arena. If you fail at that, don't bother sticking around. I have your address. I'll send what's left of your checks there."

My eyes narrowed in suspicion. "_What's left_?"

"After I recompense the park for everything you've done to destroy it."

My lids lowered so she wouldn't be able to see the look in my eyes. I didn't want her to have any inkling that I wasn't the pushover she thought I was. When I let her have it with both barrels, I wanted it to be a total surprise.

Lula opened her mouth, as if she were going to object, but I managed to catch her gaze and gave a shake of my head to let her know to leave it for now.

Babs cleared her throat. "Yes, well, come with me, and I'll take you to where you'll be working with Tyler."

She turned and stalked away, not bothering to see if we were behind her.

Lula grumbled, but we followed in Babs's wake, and even though I was as close to Lula as possible, I couldn't hear a word of what she was saying.

There was a heavily foliaged area between the restaurant and the direction we were being led. After our run-ins with the alligators and the snakes, I was a little leery about walking this way, but there wasn't much choice since we had no idea where Babs was taking us.

Rustling from the underbrush had us stepping up our pace. We had nearly caught up with Babs when there was that sound that we'd heard earlier—somewhere between a growl and a roar.

Babs stopped suddenly, looking in every direction before she picked up her pace.

That was all Lula and I needed to tell us that the sound wasn't a natural one in the park. We hurried to keep pace with her.

Suddenly, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I turned to look around. The sight behind me had my heart skipping a beat before starting to race. I knew we weren't going to make it to safety.

Lula must have looked back as well. Her voice was shaky as she asked, "Is that what I think it is?"

The sound of a high-pitch scream rent the air, and the jaguar that was following us loped forward. It was sniffing the air, and as it closed in, I noticed that it was zeroing in on Lula. It stopped beside her with its nose flush against her purse.

Without moving, I softly told her, "Give it the purse."

Although her voice never raised above a whisper, I could tell that she was screaming the words. "What? You expect me to give up a five-hundred-dollar purse to some old cat?"

"That_ cat_ is a wild beast that could kill you in a heartbeat."

She pouted. "I don't like this. Why is it I'm always the one giving things up?"

I sniffed. "Because you're the one that spilled the perfume in the purse."

She sighed. "This is my favorite purse."

I rolled my eyes.

The sound of hysterical screaming from behind us was not only annoying, but from the way the jaguar was acting, the sound was bothering the cat as well. I turned to where Babs was standing and quietly yet firmly told her, "Stop. You're making it worse."

Her eyes narrowed on me as she continued to whimper. Her voice was on the shrill side as she said, "You're fired."

She tossed her chin in the air and went to flounce off, but Tyler's voice spoke up to say, "You are such a stupid woman! We could have made a fortune with that one. I had customers lined up for the next two weeks! Now you've gone and ruined everything."

My stomach felt like it was tied in knots, and I had a feeling it wasn't because of the jaguar currently making out with Lula's bag. Looking around at the area around us told me that there wouldn't be any help coming our way unless someone deliberately chose to come this way for some reason. There was foliage on either side of the path that was well over eight feet, judging by the fact that even Tyler was dwarfed by it. There were openings to show other paths, so at a guess, this particular trail that we were on led from the restaurant to the main building. Since we hadn't seen this area before, I was also guessing this led to a back entrance.

I moved into a position so that I was able to keep an eye on Babs and Tyler as well as the cat. I was hoping that by not moving, the cat wouldn't see us as prey that he would have to chase and kill. The familiar way that Babs ran her hand down Tyler's upper arm told me the two were intimate. The cunning smile on Babs's face told me that she thought she was the one in charge. From the look on Tyler's face, no one had let him in on the hierarchy, though.

The overwhelming smell of Obsession no longer permeated the air for me. Instead, the smell of French fries, bacon, and hamburgers cooking was strong. My gaze connected with Lula's, and her eyes looked like they were about to bug out of her head. Her skin was pale, and there was a slight shaking in the hand that the jaguar was now sniffing.

There was movement in the undergrowth nearby, and whether it was another wild animal coming to the party or something else, I didn't want to stick around and find out. I leaned in slightly toward Lula and told her, "Let the thing have the purse."

Her eyes widened even more if that was possible as she squeaked out, "No!"

"If you don't give it up, it might cost you your life. Come on. They're busy. We can at least get a head start."

I knew by the determined look on Lula's face that arguing with her was a lost cause. She wouldn't be giving the purse up unless there was no other option. She bared her teeth and let out a growl that had the jaguar looking up at her.

The hair on the cat stood up, much in the way a house cat's hair would stand on end when it was confronted with a dog or other animal it might have to fight. I had a bad feeling things were going to get infinitely worse in the very near future.

I hissed, "Drop the damn purse and let's get out of here."

"I ain't givin' up my purse."

The jaguar screamed.

"Lula, drop it!"

She shook her head. "Can't do it, Steph."

The cat leapt into the air.

A shot rang out, and the cat dropped to the ground, motionless.

I turned in the direction that the shot originated from, and there was the most beautiful sight in the world. Ranger was standing there dressed in SWAT black from head to toe, the Glock in his hands still aimed in the air at where the big cat had been only seconds before.

Ranger's gaze flicked to me for a fraction of a second before moving to where Tyler and Babs were standing. "Drop your weapon."

Tyler laughed. "I don't think so. You might get me, but one of them will be dead before I die."

There were no tricks left in my bag, and I'd already used Lula's stun gun on the alligators. I really hated the thought of getting shot, and I didn't like the idea of Lula getting hurt any better. We were caught in the middle, and I was afraid when the bullets started flying, Tyler wouldn't be as precise in where his shots went as Ranger would.

A booming voice from the brush spoke up. "Drop to the ground, or you're dead."

Babs grabbed the gun from Tyler and turned it to the area the voice had come from, opening fire.

I pulled Lula to the ground at the same instant that the first shot was fired from Ranger's direction.

When the bullets stopped flying, both Babs and Tyler were down. I lifted my head to look around, but a strong hand stopped me in mid-motion. "This isn't something you want to see, Babe."

I asked him the only thing I could think of. "What are you doing here?"

A low chuckle had me looking up into his face. He winked at me before saying, "Stay here until we have the scene contained."

He moved over to where the others were.

Trusting him that this was something I didn't want to see, I kept my gaze averted, instead looking around at the area around us. There was a flash, like the sun glinting off something shiny. I scanned the area that it came from and noticed a vehicle. It looked like a sporty car, but I wasn't able to determine the make or model.

It was several minutes before Ranger made his way back over to us. "It's safe to get up. You'll need to give statements to the police when they come."

Lula got a panicked look on her face.

Before she could go into a full-blown meltdown, Tank stopped beside us. "I can stay here and ride back to the house with them. That way you can swing by the office and make sure those bozos know they screwed up."

Ranger nodded. He helped me up as Tank did the same for Lula, making sure our backs were to the scene where Babs and Tyler lay.

It didn't take long for the police to arrive, and it was apparent by the familiar way the officer greeted Ranger that they knew each other. The officer was a couple of inches taller than Ranger but nowhere near Tank's height. The man was leanly muscled, and his skin tone was slightly darker than Ranger's.

"I see you caught your skip. Who's the woman?"

"From the background check we did on him, she's his girlfriend and partner."

The other man nodded. He turned to Lula and me and grinned. "Hi. I'm Officer Darrius Grange. I'll need to take your statements since you were here during the takedown."

Lula lifted her nose to sniff the air. "I need me some sugar. Something ooey and gooey to settle my nerves."

Officer Grange turned and said something to his partner, and the other man jogged off in the direction of the restaurant. "Officer Timson will get the food and meet us back at the main building. Why don't we all walk over there while the team processes the scene?"

We started following him, but I noticed Ranger wasn't joining us. I turned back to see why, and Tank moved into my line of vision. "Like he said, you really don't want to see that back there. Ranger's going to make sure that everything gets processed, and then he'll meet us back at his place later."

Without saying a word, I nodded and turned back to make my way to the main building.

Mary was waiting for us when we entered the building. Her eyes flashed before she hooded them. "I'm so glad you weren't hurt. I had no idea that Babs and Tyler were evil."

My stomach was churning. The danger should be past, yet it felt just the same as when we'd been confronted by Babs and Tyler. I looked around but could see nothing to indicate there was imminent danger. Tank's presence gave me a slight measure of reassurance, but something was drastically off.

Officer Grange asked, "Is there an office we can use?"

Mary nodded. "Yes, follow me."

She led us in the direction of Babs's office. Not exactly my first choice, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

Lula went first. Just before the door closed, the officer that had gone for food rushed into the building, waving the bags of food. Lula rushed the man and took both bags before going back inside the office.

The door closed as Tank chuckled. "You okay, or you need something to eat, too?"

I grinned up at him. "I'm good to go. So, how did you two show up just at the right moment?"

Tank grimaced. "RangeMan does security for the park. When we were making the rounds of the Miami office, Ranger heard the guys laughing about something, and we went to check it out. The snake swamp is fully monitored."

My eyes narrowed. "So they were laughing at what was happening to Lula and me in there?"

His eyes met mine. "That about sums it up. Ranger read them the riot act, and we made a hasty trip here."

I grimaced. "As much as I appreciate your timing, I can't help but be embarrassed about what you saw."

Tank shook his head. "You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You kept your head and got all three of you out of there safely."

"You're being kind, but thanks."

He raised an eyebrow. "I don't do kind. Just telling it like it is."

The door opened, and Lula came out, one of the two sacks she'd snatched still clutched in her grip. Her mouth was stuffed with whatever she'd crammed in there as she tried to talk around the food. "Iths yo thurn."

Reluctantly, I made my way into the office.

Officer Grange was there waiting for me. He waved me to a chair and closed the door. I told him what had happened from the time Babs had found us at the restaurant and we'd started back to the main building. He didn't ask any questions, and I was totally thrown off. When I finished, he merely smiled and told me if he needed anything further, he'd be in contact with me. I wasted no time in leaving.

Tank and Lula stood as I walked out of the office, and I made a beeline for them. "Let's get out of here."

Lula nodded. "I'm with you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Stephanie's POV**

Tank stood looking at my car.

I moved around him and used the key to unlock the driver's door before climbing behind the wheel so I could unlock the rest of the doors. The car might be old, but it got me where I needed to go so I was happy. The heat in the car was overwhelming, so the first thing that needed doing was rolling down the windows.

Just as I was preparing to shut my door, Tank leaned down and folded his arms in the open window area. "What are the chances of you letting me drive this…uh..."

My eyes narrowed on him. "Are you maligning my car?"

His eyes widened. "Is that what this is?"

I smiled sweetly. "If you really want to drive, you're going about it the wrong way."

He hung his head. "I duly apologize. There's only one spot I have a chance of fitting into, and you are sitting there."

I looked over at Lula. She didn't say anything, but the blush on her cheeks told its own story. Turning back to Tank, I let out a sigh. "Fine. But you need to seriously baby the gas pedal."

His grin lit up his face.

Rather than getting out and moving to the backseat, I simply turned and climbed over into the back, moving over behind Lula. I figured Tank would want to put the seat back as far as he could, and I didn't want to get squished.

Tank climbed behind the wheel, and as I'd expected, he quickly moved the seat back as far as it would go. He had the car started and had pulled out into traffic before I'd been able to get my seat belt on. Of course, it didn't help that the seat belts in the back were defunct and I had to resort to tying my shoulder strap to the strap for the middle seat belt in order to make it work.

I was a bit worried when the whining started a few short blocks into our journey.

Tank looked around, as if he was trying to determine whether it was the car or something else making the sound.

My concern grew when we seemed to be steadily increasing speed as we neared a traffic light instead of slowing down. My hand went to the back of the front seat, and I said, "You remember I told you that you need to baby the gas. The car doesn't like to go more than forty, forty-five tops."

Tank shook his head. "I have a way with cars. Don't you worry none. By the time we get home, this car is going to love speed."

The light turned red, and he had to slam on the brakes. Both Lula and I were thrown forward, our seat belts the only thing keeping us from hitting our heads.

Lula glared at Tank. "You might want to be a little more gentle next time you need to stop. I'd like to be alive when this trip is over."

Tank grimaced. "Sorry. The brakes locked up. Now that I know how touchy they are, I'll be able to plan for it the next time."

I rubbed my neck where the seat belt had cut into the skin. "I hope so."

When the light turned green, the car didn't move. Horns started sounding from behind us, but we still stayed where we were. Tank was fiddling with the gear shift and pressing on the gas, but nothing was happening. The light turned yellow, and suddenly, we rocketed through the intersection. Tank quickly got control over the wheel, and things went pretty smoothly…well, as smoothly as they could with the motor whining like it was on its last leg. I had to give it to Tank. We were making better time heading back to Miami than we had when we were on our way to the park.

Settling back, I watched the traffic whizzing by. It had been a long day, and I actually enjoyed being able to relax during the ride instead of dealing with the tension of driving. My eyes were drooping when I smelled it. The acrid smell of a motor burning. It was an odor that once you smelled it, you never forgot.

My eyes opened wide, and I said, "Pull over."

Tank lifted his head so he was looking at me through the rearview mirror. "Why?"

"The motor's on fire."

He grinned. "Naw. I got this car running so it's not whining anymore. It just took running it at a good speed for a while, and now it's running like a top."

Lula put her hand against the dash as Tank weaved to avoid another motorist. She pulled it back just as quickly. "Then why'd I nearly burn my hand touching the dash?"

Tank reached out and touched the dash, pulling his hand back just as quickly while waving it in the air as he swore. He started to move us over to the right, when flames shot up from the hood of the car. He swerved over to the side of the road and turned the car off as we all scrambled to get our seat belts off and get out of the car.

Lula and I made it out with some difficulty—the seat belts didn't want to give up their human sacrifices—but we finally got free and barreled out of the car.

Tank, on the other hand, was still stuck in the driver's seat. I moved back to see why he wasn't following us in getting away from the car that was slowly turning into a charred skeleton of its former self. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Move back. I'm stuck is all, but I'm working on it."

I bit my lip as I quickly scanned the area for anything to help us. "Open the door."

He shook his head again. "Get back. I got this."

I reached in and ripped the door open. "Damn it, we don't have time for you to go caveman." I looked down where his feet were and noticed that his right foot was stuck between the gas pedal and the brake. I quickly moved to the backseat and got out the crowbar, wedging it between the two pedals. I looked up at him. "This is going to hurt. But it's the only way."

He gritted his teeth and nodded. "Do it."

It took me three tries before the pressure I was putting on the brake pedal had it moving enough so that I could get Tank's foot free.

He didn't even wait for me to get out of the way as he jumped out of the car, lifting me in a fireman's carry almost at the same time, and hit the ground running. When the explosion happened, we were thrown a couple of feet, landing on the hard ground as the sound of sirens closing in could be heard.

I lay on my back, trying to get my bearings. Although we were several feet from the burning car, the incredible heat from the flames reached us. I sat up to look around. Lula was kneeling over Tank, trying to wake him up. I quickly scrambled over to them, grabbing his wrist to check his pulse.

"He's got a pulse. The blast must have knocked him out."

A gravelly voice from behind me had me whipping my head around to see the elderly gentleman from the wedding party standing there. "You sure do liven things up, girlie."

I grinned weakly. "What are you doing here?"

His face split in a smile. "Your car was smoking the minute you left the parking lot at the park. I had my driver follow in case we could be of assistance."

"Well, thank you very much. I think we'll be okay."

He nodded. "Of course you will." He motioned to a man standing beside a limo, and the other man joined us.

The man knelt down to where Tank was lying and thoroughly checked him out. From his actions, it was obvious that he was knowledgeable about human anatomy. He looked up at the older gentleman and said, "He's just knocked out. He'll be fine in a couple of minutes. We can stop by the hospital on our way and have him checked out, as well as the ladies."

The older man nodded. "All right. Let's get in the car and get this show on the road."

Three hours later, the limo pulled up to the house. The gentleman and his driver had stayed with us while we got Tank checked out, and he'd insisted that both Lula and I see a doctor as well. When I'd told him that I didn't let strange men tell me what to do, he'd thrown back his head and had let out a deep belly laugh before holding out his hand and saying, "I'm Alexander. Pleased to meet your acquaintance, girlie. What do you say we find a justice of the peace and tie the knot?"

I'd laughed, telling him, "I'm too young to get married."

There had been a look in his eyes that had made me wonder, but just as quickly the look had disappeared and he'd moved to the reception desk to demand a doctor.

The other odd thing was the way he'd looked at Tank, and then once Tank had come around, he'd kept looking at Alexander as if he couldn't believe his eyes. I hadn't been able to get close enough to ask about that without the others overhearing.

When the limo came to a stop, the driver got out and opened the door. Tank moved to exit the car, but the driver put up his hand to stop him. Alexander was the first to climb out, followed by Tank and then Lula, with me bringing up the rear.

As we stood outside the car, I noticed Ranger was moving in our direction. The look on his face gave me the impression he was less than happy. His gaze connected with Alexander's, and although there was no reaction, I could sense there was unspoken dialogue going on between the two men.

Ranger stopped beside me, his hand going to the small of my back as he leaned down and whispered, "How do you do it?"

I looked up at him, confused. "Do what?"

A slight grin pulled at his gorgeous mouth. "Find trouble." He then turned to the old man. "Ramos. Thank you for returning my people."

Alexander's eyes narrowed. "I should have known when I saw Tank." He turned to me, holding his hand out with a card. "Thanks for the fun, girlie. If you ever need a favor, just give me a call." He nodded. "That will get you directly to me."

He gave a jaunty salute and turned toward the limo. It was as the limo was pulling away that I remembered Ranger's greeting to the old man—Ramos, he'd said. Instantly, the memory of reading about Alexander Ramos's connection to Rangoonie popped into my head as I put two and two together.

I whirled around and slapped my hand against Ranger's chest. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Ranger took hold of my hand. "Forget it. Put all those thoughts right out of your head. There is no way you are getting involved with Alexander Ramos."

I raised an eyebrow. "You seem very sure of yourself."

He raised an eyebrow. "I know my abilities.

Wrinkling my nose, I leaned into him and rested my chin on his chest. "And I know mine. So where does that put us?"

His eyes dilated with desire, and an answering heat raced through me. He leaned closer, and just before his mouth reached mine, a loud growling sound emanated from the region of my stomach. Ranger paused, then leaned his forehead against mine and said, "You have impeccable timing, Babe." His lips skimmed my mouth before he moved away, holding out his hand to me he said, "Let's go feed the beast."

**Ranger's POV**

Waking up at four a.m. was routine. I was dragging a bit more today, and I figured that was due to the late hour we'd eaten the night before, as well as the heavy meal. Tank met me in the den, as was our routine when we stayed in this particular house. We were both dressed in sweats, and I was itching for a good, hard run after the restless night I'd had.

With a minimum of effort, we were under way. There were two paths I generally followed—one of them took me through the winding roads that led up to the house, and the other path took me along the beach at the ocean's edge. Today I wanted to expend the most physical exertion as possible, so we took the harder beach path.

Two hours later, we were walking through the back door. The silence told me that our guests hadn't stirred. I opened the fridge and pulled two bottles of water out, tossing one to Tank while I twisted the cap off and greedily drank the cool liquid. Tossing the empty bottle in the trash, I told Tank, "Meet you at the car in fifteen."

"Better make that twenty. What's on the agenda for today?"

"I'm meeting with Chan. It's time to let RangeMan Miami know that we are in town, so while I do that, I want you screening the rest of the guys. Anything strikes you as odd, have Rodriguez check it out."

"What about them two?"

Just thinking about Stephanie had the corner of my mouth lifting. "They're going to a job. They'll probably beat us back here."

Tank shook his head. "You must have it bad."

My gaze met his. "What about you? I've seen you take down three men at once, and you let Lula sit on you."

"I didn't want to hurt her."

"Right. Keep telling yourself that."

Tank laughed. "Can you believe that those two got in here and kept it from a building full of security experts?" He shook his head.

"From the little that Chan said, we might have to scrap the entire crew and start fresh. Apparently Gunner's psychosis was farther reaching than we expected."

Tank grimaced, then straightened. "All right. Give me twenty, and I'll be ready. I take it this is a _trust no one_ mission?"

I gave a slight nod of my head before I left to get cleaned up.

A five-minute shower and two minutes to dress gave me three minutes to grab a lox and bagel. I still had five minutes to check in with Rodriguez and see if he had any preliminary information.

He answered on the third ring. "Rodriguez."

"What do you have for me?"

"It doesn't look good. I sent you an e-mail with everything I've been able to pull up, but there are three guys who I can't get anything on. This is going to get messy."

"Check with Silvio in Boston. Maybe he can put some light on the situation."

"Will do. And what did you find out about the other?"

I let out a chuckle. "I'll tell you all about it when we get back. You aren't going to believe it."

"Les said that we all needed to be on call for a nine-one-one. You care to elaborate?"

"All in good time."

I disconnected the call before checking my watch. I still had twenty seconds to get to the car. That would give me a chance to check it over before Tank showed up.

When Tank and I walked into the RangeMan building, I knew from the looks we were being given that the men had been warned. I knew that I could trust Chan, but who else knew that I was in town? I made a miniscule nod with my head, letting Tank know that he was in charge here, and I moved toward the stairs.

RangeMan Miami was much like the Trenton office. Seven floors, with the offices and comm room all on the fifth floor. Chan had an apartment on the seventh floor, and Petro and his wife—who took care of the building—lived on the sixth floor. The fourth floor was apartments for the workers, and the third floor was the medical wing, with the gym on the ground floor.

As I stepped out of the stairwell door, Chan moved to greet me. We shook hands and then moved to his office, where we spent the next several hours going over each and every file of the men who worked for RangeMan Miami.

A brisk knock on the door interrupted us several hours later. Tank opened the door, and he looked pissed. "Ranger, you need to see what these bozos are spending their day doing."

Chan and I stood and followed Tank to the comm room.

Seeing Stephanie on the monitors had me freezing in my tracks. The assholes sitting at the monitors were laughing and making bets as to how soon she'd get bitten by one of the water moccasins that she was shocking and putting into a brown gunny sack. These men had no respect for the danger that the two women or the man with them were in. All they seemed to think about was making easy money.

I would have been angry regardless of who they were doing this to, but the fact that it was Stephanie was worse somehow. My gaze narrowed. I knew that the icy rage was discernable in my voice when I spoke, but I didn't care if these bastards knew that I was angry. "_Chan_!"

"I see, Ranger. Don't worry. They'll all be off the premises before the end of the shift."

The four men watching the monitors turned to where we were standing. One of them—Leon—smirked. "Loosen up, man. We're just having some fun."

I moved in and grabbed Leon by the neck of his T-shirt. "Clean out your desk and apartment. You have five minutes to get out of this building, or I will personally kick your ass to the curb."

Leon snorted. "You and who's army? I'm ex-Navy Seal, chump."

I moved with lightning speed and had his arm twisted up behind his back before he could react. Leaning in, I spoke in a tone barely more than a whisper. "In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm Ranger."

Leon paled. "Holy shit! I…I…I…didn't…kn…kn…know, sir."

I leaned in closer as I amped up the pressure on the arm. "Get…out…of…my…building. _Now_!"

Leon bobbed his head. "Yes, sir. Right away, sir."

I threw him from me, and the man went down to his knees. I turned to Chan. "If he's still here when I get back, I can't make any promises to the longevity of his life."

Chan nodded. "Understood."

My gaze caught Tank's, and we moved for the exit. The Everglade Safari Park was over forty-five minutes from where we were. I intended to make that trip in less than thirty.

True to my intentions, twenty-nine minutes later, I was staring down the barrel of my gun at a skip who had been slipping through the cracks in this area for too long. After seeing the condition of RangeMan Miami, I was starting to wonder if some of them were partners with the bastard in front of me. When the bad guy was on the ground, I told Tank to stay with the girls, and I made sure the monster was delivered to the prison hospital.

As I left the building, a shadow moved in the alley, and I walked in that direction. When I stepped between the two buildings, a low male voice spoke. "I watch."

I nodded and without saying a word headed home to where I knew Tank and the girls would be waiting.

The house was empty when I arrived, but I didn't think much of it. Sometimes it took a while to get all the information. However, when an hour passed and Tank and the girls weren't back, I started to get uneasy. As the time passed, the longer it took, the more my unease grew, until finally, I was in seek-and-destroy mode with no target in sight. Waiting was getting me nowhere, so I grabbed my keys and headed for the garage. The beam of headlights arcing as they pulled into the drive had me letting out a pent-up breath until I saw it was a limo pulling in and not the decrepit car that had been in my garage that morning.

Alexander Ramos exiting from the back followed by Tank had me clenching my hands into fists as I wondered what the hell Stephanie was doing with Alexander Ramos. I moved in to handle the situation and let Ramos know that she was protected, in case he had any ideas. I only felt a measure of relief when I deduced that their acquaintance was purely accidental because they'd both been in the same place at the same time.

When Alexander left, I took a premature sigh of relief that disaster had been averted. Stephanie's connecting him with the words I'd spoken told me I hadn't heard the last of this, but I got a stay of relief when her stomach let out a roar of displeasure at not having been fed in a while.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Stephanie's POV**

Looking in the refrigerator told me that nothing had miraculously appeared since last night when we'd put the leftovers in there. Nothing in there was calling my name, and Lula was pickier than I was. I looked up at Ranger over my shoulder. "Not much to choose from."

The corner of Ranger's mouth moved up in a half grin. "What would you like to eat, Babe?"

I rolled my eyes. "Food would be good."

He threw his head back in laughter. Seconds later, he took my hand, pulled me from in front of the open fridge, then led me through to the den where Lula and Tank were waiting. "How's the head feeling?"

"I got a slight headache, but I'm good. Why? What's up?"

Ranger winked at me. "Stephanie isn't exactly thrilled with the choices we have for a meal, so why don't we take the ladies to Marty's?"

Lula frowned. "What's Marty's? It's not some lame-ass dive, is it? 'Cause those places don't set with me—well, unless they have out-of-this-world food."

Tank gave Lula a look which had her giving him a second look. "Woman, you ain't tasted food till you've eaten at Marty's."

"Uhn-huhn. You best be telling it like it is, big boy, 'cause if we get all the way there and the food is lame, I got your number."

Twenty minutes later, Ranger pulled into one of the seedier parts of Miami. If it was just Lula and me, there would be no way I would even stop in this part of town. Growing up in Trenton meant that I was familiar with the sleazier element of the mob and that I was adept at staying out of their sights—well, for the most part, anyway. If you didn't count the circus fiasco.

After turning off the Porsche Cayenne, Ranger pocketed the keys and turned to where I was sitting. "Normally, I wouldn't want the two of you anywhere near this part of town. Bringing you here will serve as a warning to the criminal element of the city." He paused, his gaze snaring mine. "When we go in there, I need both of you to act comfortable with us, like we've known each other for years instead of days. If you feel uncomfortable with anyone, move closer to us and don't act surprised if we act familiar. What we're trying to sell in there is that you are with us. People in this part of town know that Tank and I protect our own."

I turned to see how Lula was taking the news. From the smile plastered there, I knew she'd be okay with this. Looking back at Ranger, I said, "We're good to go. Just make sure you aren't the one jumping with surprise."

The corner of his mouth lifted.

My hand went to the door, but Ranger rested his hand on my thigh. "We'll open your doors. I hope you two aren't die-hard women's libbers. If we treat you like ladies, then the men in there will follow suit."

Lula asked, "Does that mean we gotta be boring? Or we gonna have some fun too?"

Ranger's eyebrow went up as he glanced in the rearview mirror. "I think we can handle anything you want to try."

The guys climbed out of the SUV, and while Tank went around the back to Lula's side, Ranger made his way around the front to where I was sitting. When he held his hand out to me, the tingling in the back of my neck went into overdrive as I placed my hand in his. Heat zinged threw my body as I stepped out into his arms.

Once Lula and Tank joined us, we made our way inside.

Marty's was surprisingly well-maintained on the inside, which was an oxymoron to the appearance of the outside of the building. The lighting was low, and it took several seconds for my eyes to acclimatize to the dimness so that I could see into the shadows.

We'd barely taken five steps when a shadow fell in front of us. The man it belonged to held out his hand, a smile on his face. "Ranger. It's been a long time."

Ranger grasped the man's hand firmly, pumping it once before he let go. "Marty. Good to see you again."

Marty looked my way, his eyes studying me for several seconds before he smiled. Tipping his hat, he said, "Ma'am."

I bit my lip, debating whether I'd let it go. Letting out a breath, I looked up at Ranger. He lifted an eyebrow, as if he were asking me a question. I bit harder, and Ranger's thumb reached out and soothed over my mangled lip. "What's wrong, Babe?"

I didn't want to hurt the old guy's feelings, so I leaned close to Ranger and whispered, "He called me ma'am."

Marty chuckled. "Well, he won't do it again. I can't call you Babe, and clearly you don't care to be called ma'am. So what should I call you?"

In that moment, I knew that Marty was someone that I was going to like. I grinned as I held out my hand to him. "My name is Stephanie. You can call me that or Steph."

He took my hand in his and lifted it to his mouth as he bent his head to kiss the back of my hand. Once he'd completed the gesture, his gaze met mine and he winked. "Okay, Stephanie, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now, what's a nice girl like you doing with a curmudgeon like Ranger?"

I glanced up at Ranger to see if he was going to give me a clue how he wanted me to handle this guy. The fact that he remained silent told me that he trusted the man in front of us and knew that no matter what I did, Marty was a friend and I didn't need to watch myself around him.

"Well, he promised to feed me."

My cheeks heated as my stomach chose that precise moment to make us aware of the fact that we had yet to put any food in it. I turned to Ranger and put my forehead against his chest as I mumbled, "Can you arrange for the floor to open up and swallow me now?"

He wrapped his arms around me as the others chuckled.

Marty leaned in to whisper. "You are a refreshing breath of fresh air, Stephanie. If this one doesn't treat you right, you come see me and I'll explain it to him."

I turned my head to look at him, and the sincerity on his face told me he meant every word. I smiled weakly. "Thank you, Marty. But I don't think that's something I have to worry about."

He gave a nod, then turned to the guys. "I'm glad to see you've come to take care of business. Chan has made inroads, but he's going to need backup to get rid of all the bad seeds."

Tank nodded. "They don't seem to be too keen on doing their jobs."

"If you need an extra hand, just give a holler."

Ranger's hand moved to the back of my neck. "Thanks, Marty. We'll be in touch."

Marty moved into the crowd, and Ranger led us to a table on the back wall. The fact that Ranger placed himself where he had a clear view of everything going on in the room wasn't lost on me. What amazed me was that Tank was also able to maneuver the chairs so he too would have a clear view of the entire room. That, of course, left Lula and me sitting together on the other side of the table with our backs to the room.

A pretty blonde moved over to our table. There was a flash of something in her eyes before she masked it and smiled at Ranger. "What can I get for you?"

Lula frowned at the young woman. "How we supposed to order when we don't know what you have?"

The blonde lifted her head and sent Lula an icy look. "Sorry. Most people know that we serve burgers and fries, fried chicken and fries, or fish and fries. Of course, we can mix up a garbage pail with a mix of everything if you're feeling piggish."

The air at the table turned frigid, and the blonde was too stupid to see she'd made a tactical error.

A harsh voice rang out behind her. "Get your gear together and clear out, Tiffany. You're fired."

The blonde turned in surprise to where an older woman was standing with her hands on her hips. Before Tiffany could say anything, the woman held up a hand. "You were warned the last time that if you pulled your shit again, you'd be gone."

Tiffany threw her order pad at the older woman and screeched, "You'll be sorry for this, you old hag," and then she flounced out of the building.

The older woman turned to where we were sitting and grinned. "Sorry about that one. She should have been cut loose a long time ago." She handed us a couple of menus. "I'll be back in a minute to take your order."

When she'd disappeared, Lula turned where Tank and Ranger were seated. "What was that all about?"

Tank shrugged. "She's friends with someone we know."

My eyes narrowed on Ranger. "Is this someone you're involved with?"

His gaze met mine. "Until I met you, I'd considered asking her to marry me. Not because I loved her, but because she was someone I could live with if I had to."

My eyes widened. "You don't pull your punches, do you?"

"I'd like to think that I deal honestly with everyone."

"So, what happened to this woman?"

"I let her know it was time to move on."

My eyes narrowed as I studied him. "So do I take it that now I'm the front runner until you find someone that fits better for you?"

Ranger chuckled. "I can see you don't pull any punches either."

I smiled sweetly. "I'm not some fill-in piece that you can have your fun with until it's time to move on. If you want something with me, you're going to have to work for it."

Ranger leaned back in his chair as his eyes studied me. "Good to know, Babe. I wouldn't have it any other way."

When the food came, it was excellent. The cheeseburger melted the minute it hit my mouth, and the fries had a seasoning that elevated them beyond anything I'd ever tasted before. Tank had a triple decker cheeseburger with potato salad and coleslaw, and Lula had a deluxe platter with cheeseburger sliders, buffalo wings, fries, coleslaw, and fried pickles. Ranger was the only odd duck in the group. He'd asked for baked fish—no coating—and a side salad with the dressing on the side.

We were nearly finished eating when Lula looked around before turning back to me. "This place ain't half bad. What's say we get jobs here?"

Tank started coughing, like he'd swallowed wrong.

Lula thumped him on the back and then said, "Geez, big boy. Maybe you need to take a class in eating so you can learn how to chew and swallow. This is the second time I had ta step in and help you out. Can' have you choking before we hit the sheets."

Tank's eyes nearly bugged out, and the choking got worse.

Ranger lifted the corner of his mouth in a smirk as he turned to me and winked. "Looks like your friend doesn't waste time either."

I took a look around. Although I felt comfortable with Tank and Ranger here with us, and I knew Marty would watch out for us as well, the other customers dining in this fine establishment didn't leave me with a good feeling. "I can't see us working here. Maybe we could find something else. Besides, we need something within walking distance, remember? My car went to that place where all dead vehicles go."

Lula looked puzzled. "The trash heap? Car heaven?"

I rolled my eyes at her.

"What?"

"Never mind."

This time, it was Lula who rolled her eyes. "Why say something if you just gonna tell me to never mind? Geez, girl. Get with the program."

Ranger leaned forward, his hands were clasped loosely together on the table. "What kind of work are you looking for?"

As if she sensed fresh blood—or in this case, a new job opportunity—Lula jumped on Ranger's words in a heartbeat. "What kind a job you got for us?"

Ranger's gaze met Tank's.

Tank grimaced before flicking a glance at Lula and then giving a nod.

Ranger's gaze moved to meet mine. "Usually I have a housekeeper come in when I'm staying at the house. Since the two of you are already staying there, maybe we could work out an arrangement where you do the cleaning and cooking in exchange for room and board as well as a small wage."

Cleaning I was okay with. I mean, how much trouble could a person get into cleaning. The cooking was another problem entirely. I couldn't even boil water, and I knew Lula wasn't any better. Just as I was opening my mouth to gracefully decline the offer, Lula stuck out her hand and declared, "You got yourself a couple of housekeepers."

My head swung around to her, my eyes wide as I silently asked her if she had any idea of what she was doing.

She turned to me with the sugary sweet smile she used when she was determined to get her way, regardless of what I had to say about the matter.

Knowing a lost cause when I saw one, I remained silent. I figured Lula would find out soon enough that this job wasn't going to be as easy as she thought it was. And if Ranger was willing to hire us to cook without having tasted our efforts, well then, he deserved what he got.

Once Lula had shaken hands with the two of them, I followed suit.

It didn't take us long to finish our meal, and Ranger motioned for the check before taking several bills out and laying them on the table to pay for the meal. "Time to go ladies. Four a.m. comes early."

Lula and I glanced at each other before turning to Ranger.

Lula frowned. "What does four a.m. have to do with us?"

Ranger gave a slight smile. "I run at four every morning. You'll need to get up then so that you have breakfast ready when we get back."

"What time you get back?"

"Usually around six."

"So there you go. You get up and go for your run at four, and Steph and I'll get up at six. We'll have plenty of time to get your breakfast ready while you two shower and get dressed." Lula's eyes glazed over, and she blushed. "Oh, I think I just wet myself thinking of these fine men in the shower nekkid."

Now that Lula had put the thought in my head, I felt dampness as the idea of Ranger naked in the shower featured in my own thoughts. A hand passing in front of my face brought me back to the present, and I looked up into Ranger's knowing eyes.

He winked at me as he leaned in so that I was the only one to hear him whisper, "You have an open invitation anytime you want it, Babe."

I felt the heat in my cheeks as I blushed, but I refused to look away. "Good to know. But don't hold your breath while you're waiting. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you while I take my time."

My breathe caught at the mega-watt smile he bestowed upon me.

He winked again as he told me, "I'll look forward to the end game."

The four of us headed out. As we were leaving, there was a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach as I caught a glimpse of something blonde near where we'd parked. My hand moved out to touch Ranger's arm. When he turned to see what I wanted, I waved toward the Cayenne. "I saw something blonde over there, and I have a bad feeling about it."

Ranger gave a miniscule nod. "Stay here with Tank, and I'll check it out."

Instinctively, I clutched at him. I didn't want him going over there. The thought of it had my stomach feeling topsy-turvy. "Do you have to?"

His finger ran down my nose. "I know what I'm doing, Babe."

I bit my lip as I watched him move away from us. The closer he got to the Cayenne, the louder the voice inside me was telling me we needed to get away from here. When I could stand it no more, I caught movement in the shadows. Several things connected together simultaneously in my mind, and when I put them all together, I turned to Tank. "There's a bomb on the underside of the car."

Tank looked at me for a second and then said, "Ranger, fall back. _Now_!"

Ranger hesitated before heading back to where we were.

The movement I'd seen before repeated as the blonde waitress from inside stepped out of the shadows. "You can't avoid me forever, you bastard. Jeanne Ellen called and told me that after months of you sniffing around her, you suddenly dropped her cold. Now I know why, and I made sure to call and tell her as well."

Ranger gave Tank a look I didn't understand, but before he had the chance to say or do anything, the Cayenne went up like a Christmas tree. The blast was hotter than it should have been, though, and not only did it take out the Cayenne, but there were three other cars that were caught in the inferno. The sound of sirens was nearly instantaneous, which made me wonder how they'd been able to get here so quickly.

Lula grimaced. "Well, don't look like she'll be givin' you no more trouble. 'Course, this Jeanne Ellen she's talking 'bout might be another matter."

Both Ranger and Tank were looking at me a little strangely. Tank was the one that asked, "How did you know?"

I shrugged. "I had a bad feeling the minute we stepped out of Marty's. But then when Ranger was nearly to the SUV, there were some things that, when put together, seemed like they were all pieces of a puzzle." I looked at Ranger. "She doesn't have the knowledge she would have needed to plant that device." I paused for a moment before asking him, "Who do you know that would know how to do it and wants to take you out?"

The tension in the air grew by leaps and bounds after I asked that question, and the quick look Tank and Ranger shared told me that I'd given them something to think about. I also got the impression that they both had the same idea.

Ranger took out his cell and made a call. It took a few seconds before it was answered, and he responded to whoever was on the other end. "Report."

I studied him while he listened to what was being said. His eyes narrowed, and he glanced over at Tank a couple of times. There was more going on here than we knew, but whether he would read Lula and me into the program was another issue entirely. Although I didn't pay attention to everything he was saying, I did pay attention to his actions. I also started wondering… If this person was knowledgeable enough to get the device under the Cayenne, did they know where Ranger lived? And how safe would it be for Lula and me to be living there?

Glancing up, I saw that Ranger was off the phone. Some of what I had been thinking must have occurred to him as well, because he said, "I think I should put you up at a hotel, Stephanie. At least until we can catch whoever is behind this."

I wasn't thrilled with the fact that I might become a target, but I needed access to the computer at Ranger's house if I was going to catch Rangoonie, and I was more determined than ever to make that bastard pay for our losing our money and whatever it was they did to Lula. Even though Rangoonie didn't get our money, he was partially responsible for the fact that we no longer had it. I was determined to make sure he no longer had the money he'd fleeced out of all those other people.

I lifted my shoulder. "He'll have to get through the system in order to get in the house. I can tweak the system so he'll have enough trouble to consider it not worth his time."

Ranger's eyebrow raised. "Babe, my security system is the best. I don't think you'll need to…tweak it."

I grinned. "Of course your system is the best. No one would ever be able to get past it, right?"

Ranger chuckled. "Touché, Babe."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Stephanie's POV**

When we got back to the house, I was able to climb into bed and fall asleep within seconds. Although I didn't consider myself a light sleeper, certain sounds often filtered into my sleep to wake me. That was one of the reasons I'd chosen the master bedroom and then suggested to Lula that she wanted the room practically on the other side of the house from where I would be sleeping. The reason for that was simple. Lula snored. Not some cute, ladylike snore either. Nothing so mundane for her. No, Lula snored like a 747 taking off at the airport. Right now, another sound was filtering into my sleep—an annoying buzzing that reminded me more of a pesky mosquito than anything else.

I waved my hand to shoo the offending pest away, but the sound continued. Reaching out blindly, I grabbed the spare pillow and covered my ear with it. The sound was muffled, but it was still there. Fortunately, it was muted enough that I was able to ignore it and go back to the dream that I'd been having before the sound so rudely interrupted.

The dream morphed, though. A grumbly giant came in and told me it was time to rise and shine, but I studiously ignored him. The sound was muffled, yet somehow, I was able to understand everything he was saying. He wanted me to get up so I could have his breakfast fixed when he came in from the fields. When I told him that he could wake me when he got done in the fields and I'd fix his breakfast then, he laughed. It was a deliciously sexy laugh and made me want to pull him into bed with me.

I was a bit confused when he told me he'd love nothing better than to climb into bed with me but that he had a feeling I wouldn't be happy when I finally surfaced.

Smiling, I let out a sigh and turned over to my other side. My movements were halted by a hand telling me it was time to wake up.

It had been after midnight when we'd finally gotten back and I'd been able to go to sleep. After the day I'd had, I was exhausted. Now some giant wanted me to get up and do his bidding? I had to say this for him… Mr. Giant was persistent.

Reaching out to swat him away, my hand came into contact with something cold and made of metal. I wrapped my fingers around it and I realized the giant was wearing a gun. I was tired and just wanted the giant to leave me alone so I could go back to sleep. I told him, "You see this? If you don't leave me alone so that I can sleep, I'm going to use this. Now scram."

There was silence for several seconds, and I smiled before turning over and letting sleep take over. I felt a slight tug on my hand where the gun was, but there was no need for me to hang on to it anymore, so I let it go.

**Ranger's POV**

I leaned against the wall outside the master bedroom, trying to give the adrenaline rush time to leave my body. It felt like I'd already run ten miles in the last few seconds. Damn that woman was scary. The fact was, that her actions only made her more desirable to me. No one had ever gotten the drop on me before, and that she had been able to do it in her sleep was nothing short of miraculous. Right now, I wanted to be back inside that room, holding her in my arms…well, eventually. First there was something more that I wanted to be doing with her.

The cat-and-mouse game that Jeanne Ellen had been playing for the past eight months—playing innocent and wanting to wait for marriage, when I knew she'd had previous sexual relationships—had gotten old months ago. I should have known that marrying her wouldn't have changed the level of boredom that I'd been feeling with the relationship. The fact that I'd felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders when I'd told Les to give Jeanne Ellen her walking papers told me that what I'd been planning would have turned out to be disastrous.

I turned to the door I'd just walked through and thought about the blue-eyed vixen sleeping in my bed. I'd never met a woman who could keep me just as fascinated out of bed as in it. Although we hadn't made love yet, I knew by the electrical current racing through me whenever I was near her that we'd be explosive together.

Pushing away from the wall, I made my way through the house to the kitchen, where Tank would be waiting for me so we could start our run. On entering the room, I frowned when he was nowhere in sight. I moved over to the fridge and grabbed a couple bottles of water, setting one on the counter. I twisted off the cap on the other and downed the icy liquid.

Tank arrived as I was tossing the bottle into the recycle bin. One look at his wild-eyed look, and I had my hand on my gun while I scanned the area for unfriendlies. "What's up?"

"No sleep again. Every night since we've been here, them damn planes have been going crazy at night. How many flights can they send out a night? It's non-stop. You know how loud those 747s are. And they choose the middle of the night to send out the maximum number of planes. Oh, and there was no way I could wake Lula. That woman sleeps like the dead, man."

I let out a low chuckle before I admitted, "At least she didn't pull your gun on you while she was still asleep."

Tank did a double take as his gaze steadied on me. "You telling me that she was asleep when she took your gun off you and pulled it on you? And what were you doing that she felt threatened?"

My right eyebrow raised as I told him, "It's not like that. I was trying to wake her up, and she was dreaming."

He nodded. "That better be all, or my fist would be getting acquainted with your face."

"That's saying something, since the only time you were ever able to take me was when you were pissed off because I let Jeanne Ellen move into the apartment at the hotel."

Tank grimaced. "I thought you let her move into RangeMan."

I shrugged. "I meant what I said about the only woman I'd ever take there would be my wife."

He nodded. "Too bad for you I didn't know you were talking about a hotel instead of our building."

I checked my watch. "We need to get started if we want to get back here on time." I paused before indicating the water I'd set out for him. "You might want to drink your water. Oh, and don't count on breakfast being ready when we get back. I think we'd be better off just asking the ladies to make dinner and keep the house cleaned."

Tank grinned. "Sure, boss. Wouldn't want you to get shot trying to wake someone up."

"Ass."

Tank let out a chuckle before downing the water and tossing the bottle. His hand connected with my gut as he said, "Race you."

He beat me out of the house by a fraction of a second, but it didn't take me long to catch up and then pass him. When we were once again in the kitchen downing bottles of water two hours later, I was feeling a whole lot better. And just as I suspected, there was no sign of life in the house, other than the two of us.

I started the coffee, and we went our separate ways to shower and dress. I sent a text to Lester before heading into the shower, and once I was dressed, I headed back into the kitchen, where I put together an omelet big enough for the two of us to share.

Tank asked, "What's on the agenda for today?"

I let my gaze move from my plate to meet his. "I've been thinking about that bomb on the Cayenne and what Stephanie had to say last night. I think someone didn't want us showing up at the office today."

"I was thinking the same thing. You know, we might be putting Lula and Stephanie at risk by letting them stay here."

I grinned. "Stephanie's already considered that. She did something on the computer before she went to bed last night, and she told me that I'd need to remember my nickname for her. It's my guess that she reprogrammed the whole damn shooting match so if anyone tries to get in here using the old codes, they'll be denied access."

He shook his head. "I think there's more to that little girl than either one of us knows. I like her." His gaze turned deadly serious. "If you were to hurt that little girl, I might have to school you on the proper way to treat a lady."

With my blank face firmly in place, I told him, "Duly noted."

It didn't take long for us to finish breakfast, and then I left a note telling Stephanie when to expect us back. With the Cayenne gone, there were only two other vehicles to choose from, and I'd already loaned the Porsche Turbo to the ladies. That left us with the F150 truck. We headed into the office. I was hoping that the asswipe who was responsible for the explosion last night would have a tell, letting us know he was surprised to see us still alive.

We arrived at the office just before the night shift would be leaving. This would give us the opportunity to observe the night crew, who would have been on when the report of the explosion came in, as well as the day crew. Since there were two shifts, this would ensure that all hands would be on deck when Tank and I walked into the building.

The moment we entered the building, I knew that this was going to be harder than I'd originally thought. There were two men at the front desk, and both of them looked as if they'd seen a ghost. There was a file in my hands with the name and photo of every man that worked at the Miami office. I'd spent some time studying it the night before so I would have a good idea of who was whom. The two in front of me were brothers Hans and Freederick Swanson. Hans had been a Marine and Free—as he was known—had been Army. Both men had decent records while in the service, but that could have been because they did what they could to blend in.

I nodded to them, and Tank and I gave nothing away as we made our way to the stairwell. As we passed them, I pressed a button on my keypad to scramble the feed to the monitors as well as the phone lines so they wouldn't be able to warn the others.

We took the stairs at a fast clip and were exiting on the fifth floor in no time. The minute we stepped out of the stairwell, several of the men gathered there looked just as shocked as the two downstairs. Tank and I made our way to the conference room, where we would be sitting in on the morning meeting. After taking our seats, I went to work, making notations into the file as to which men seemed the most startled at our presence.

Chan joined us, taking the seat beside mine. He leaned in to whisper, "There are three men missing. Hickory is in the hospital, Drake was in a car accident and has a concussion as well as burned hands, and Jolson has a court date with his ex-wife."

"Did you hear any chatter this morning? Anyone seeming to be more confident that our trip here would be over before it started?"

Chan nodded. "There was lots of chatter when I came on the floor. Sanderson and Deets were telling me how I should watch my back and how they had it from a good source that you two had been taken out like a couple of girls."

I looked in the file to remind myself what Deets and Sanderson looked like so I'd know who I'd be talking to before the day was out.

We didn't have time for any more conversation as the men started arriving, each one taking the seat farthest from where the three of us were sitting. The last men in the room had the bad luck to have to sit the closest to where we were.

Chan called the meeting to order with one word. "Report."

There was silence for several moments before Leery fidgeted and said, "No break-ins during the night, no alarms going off. Nothing much happened from eighteen hundred to zero six hundred."

Chan stiffened. "Nothing much happened? No explosions? No reports of any RangeMan vehicles going off the grid?"

Leery shook his head. "Nothing."

Chan's eyes narrowed. "Then consider yourselves on report for dereliction of duty."

Every pair of eyes bored into Chan. He in turn stared each of the men down. "For your information, there was a vehicle that did, in fact, go off the grid at twenty-one hundred last night. The fact that none of you are aware of it tells me you are either lying or you aren't doing your job with the efficiency required."

The others in the room never made eye contact with us or each other, which told me there was more than one person involved. And the ones who weren't involved knew about the incident. Whether they were keeping silent because they supported the action or they were too scared to say anything, whatever the reason, I knew that these weren't the type of men I wanted working for me.

My phone vibrated, and I pulled it out, making sure it stayed out of sight under the table. I knew what the message was, and I didn't need to look at the phone in order to answer it. Pressing the send button, I put the phone away, then flicked a glance at Tank to let him know I was ready to act.

Pushing back from the table, I stood. "As of now, you're all fired. Get your gear and get out. You have one hour."

There were sounds of outrage and stunned disbelief. A big, burly man—who'd come in just after Chan—stood, his hands clenching as he smirked. "You think you're so badass. You just wait. What are you going to do without a team to work for you? All those clients are going to go elsewhere, and you'll be left with nothing."

I had Jones in the air by my fist at the neck of his shirt. "Anytime you're ready, Jones."

The look in his eyes told me his act was pure bravado. He didn't have the guts to face someone. His answer would be to ambush them.

I tossed him, and he fell a couple feet from me. "You now have fifty minutes to get out of my building."

It wasn't until the last man left the room that Chan shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Ranger. This is my fault. I know you trusted me to come in here and find out who was working with Franco, but the truth of the matter is that I'm no closer now than the day I found out Franco was dirty. He stocked this building with people he could trust. I should have done what you just did."

I shook my head. "I sent you here to find answers, not to confront the men or fire them. We'll still get the answers. We're just going to get them another way."

Chan nodded. "I'll take over monitors."

"You'll have help soon enough."

"What are you going to do? Hire another complete crew in under an hour?"

Grinning, I said, "We don't need a complete crew. What we need is already here and on their way down." Turning, I looked at Tank. "You and I need you to go unlock the stairwell to the roof."

Tank nodded. "How many more will be arriving?"

"We have the initial team that's here already, and the rest of the core team will be here in thirty minutes."

Tank shook his head. "Leave it to Santos to lead the cavalry."

I gave a miniscule nod. "He's leaving Hal in charge of Trenton until we return."

Tank chuckled. "Good choice. The guys won't know what hit them. Hal might seem shy and unassuming, but he's one hell of a drill sergeant. Wouldn't surprise me if, when we get back, the men are in better shape than they've been in a while."

Although I made no comment, I knew there was probably quite a bit of truth in what Tank had said.

**Lester's POV**

There was a storm heading our way, and from the tingle that I was getting, it was going to be a bad one. The sky was dark with the angry clouds that had already rolled in. A buzzing had me reaching for my cell phone, and I looked at the text I'd just received from Ranger. My jaw clenched as I looked at the sky once again. Charlie wasn't going to like flying in the storm. There was only one pilot better, although I'd never tell him that.

I dialed the number I knew by heart, and when it was answered, I said, "Hey, Red. I need you to fly us to Miami. Can you arrange it?"

There was a pause, and then: "Sure. Be on the roof in ten."

Smiling, I sent Bobby a text, then put the phone in its compartment and moved to give the order.

The fifth floor of RangeMan Trenton was much like the fifth floor at any of the offices. As you stepped off the elevator, there was an open walkway leading to a seating alcove, where there were several comfortable chairs with a coffee table in the center. Although not many people saw this part of the building, when one of the guys messed up, Ranger would have them cool their heels sitting there where they'd be the most uncomfortable.

They didn't have just Ranger to worry about when they were in the hot spot, as the guys like to refer to this little space. I had the corner office, and Tank had the third office that cut the alcove off from view so the other men had no idea what was going on here, which ended up adding to the tension they felt when called to cool their jets here by one of us.

On one side of the walkway, there were several cubicles set up, where the majority of the men worked. Each man was assigned his own cubicle, and no one else worked there. The opposite side was where the break room and comm room were located. The break room had several tables and chairs, as well as a stocked fridge, sink, and cupboards, where there was a variety of food provided.

The comm room was where the monitors were that showed all the places that RangeMan provided security for. There was room for two men in the room, and for their eight-hour shift, they would sit and monitor what was going on at each site. Trenton had the highest success rate of all the RangeMan offices. With everything that was happening in Miami, I had a strong feeling that we'd need to look at hiring soon if some of our team decided to stay in Miami to fill the void that would be opened when Ranger fired the team there. Chan was a good man, and if the crew refused to straighten up when he took over, there was definitely something very wrong going on. Now it was up to us to see how far-reaching it was—that, and to redecorate. I doubted that all of the guys would want to leave their cushy residence.

Stepping out of my office, I looked around, picking the other men that would go with me in the chopper. The whole process took only seconds, and then I said, "Listen up."

Twenty-three men suddenly came to attention, as if waiting for inspection with the unanimous answer, "Yes, sir!"

"Hal, you are now in charge of Trenton RangeMan until further notice."

Hal nodded. "Yes, sir."

There were a few groans from a couple of the new hires, probably because they'd been giving Hal an especially hard time recently, and when they'd gone too far with their pranks, he'd schooled them on proper respect. I didn't bother saying anything, but a look told them more than my words would have. The tinge of pink in their cheeks told me they'd received my message.

I turned to the others. "Bones, you'll be in charge of medical until Bobby's return. Cal, you'll be second in command, and you'll be responsible for a special little package that will be arriving very soon. Rodriguez and Rambo are with me. Get your gear and be on the roof in five." I paused for just a moment before adding, "Dismissed."

Hal and Cal were the only two to remain behind. Hal's next question to me told me why he was the obvious one to put in charge. "Who do you want following you on the jet?"

"Ram, Junior, Binkie, Erik, Manny, Zip, Zero, Diaz, and Terminator."

He nodded. "They'll be there thirty minutes after you land."

I handed him my key fob. "You'll use my office."

"Yes, sir." Taking the fob from me, he went toward my office, and I was left with Cal.

"I take it Red is flying you?"

I nodded. "I need you to keep an eye on Peanut."

He grinned. "You know I will. She's the most important thing in my life."

"I know."

Cal's eyes narrowed. "I expect I don't have to tell you what will happen if Red gets so much as a scratch, right?"

My eyebrow rose as my gaze met his. "Duly noted."

As I went to get my own gear, I texted Ella. She sent me an answer a moment later, and I had to smile because, even through the text, I could see her excitement. When I got to the roof, Red was there with the chopper. I made my way over to the front passenger seat, and my eyes met hers as I unbuckled the special package that Cal would be watching over…that is, if he could get her away from Ella. I looked down at my little Peanut and grinned. "How's my girl?"

Her eyes lit up as she held her arms up for me to lift her up. "Lester!"

Red caressed the baby's hair and said, "Come give Momma a hug first, Ava."

Ava climbed over to her mother's waiting arms, and I watched as Kirslyn hugged her daughter to her. She kissed her forehead before whispering, "You be a good girl for Uncle Cal and Ella, okay?"

Ava looked up at her mother. "I will, Momma."

My heart hitched as Kirslyn smiled down at her baby girl. When those big, trusting eyes turned to me, I fell like a ton of bricks just like every other time I'd been around her. Watching Ava was like seeing a miniature of Kirslyn.

Ava climbed back over to me, and I lifted the three-year-old into my arms. Her arms wrapped around my neck as I carried her over to where Cal was waiting. He would take her down to Ella's apartment, and between the two of them, they would watch over Ava until we could return.

Ava smiled on seeing her uncle.

Cal wasn't an honorary uncle like the rest of the RangeMan crew. He was the real deal. Kirslyn was his sister-in-law. When his brother Travis had been killed in Afghanistan three and a half years ago, he'd moved Kirslyn here so he could watch over her and the baby that she was expecting. I would forever be grateful to him for that because it was his actions in bringing her here that allowed me to meet the love of my life.

Once I was in the passenger seat, I turned to see the other three already in the chopper waiting. I grinned at Kirslyn and said, "Let's get this show on the road."

She rolled her eyes at me before powering up for takeoff.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Ranger's POV**

Chan got situated on monitors, and after Tank and I barricaded him in so that no one could get in to take him out, we headed for the stairwell door leading to the seventh floor. If anything happened and Chan needed to get out of the building in a hurry, there was a trap door that would open and he could slide down to ground level without anyone seeing. It was a safeguard in all RangeMan buildings in case the enemy ever made it inside. According to the weather service, the team coming in had had to do some fancy flying, so I was betting that Red would be with them instead of Charlie. Charlie was a good man, but he knew his limitations. That had been the one stipulation he'd made when he'd come to work for me—no bad-weather flying. Going up after the storm had passed would have been bad enough for him.

When we got to the stairwell to the roof, I left Tank to stand guard so that we wouldn't have to worry about any surprises when we came down. I made my way to the roof and arrived just in time to see the helicopter land.

Sure enough, Red was at the controls, so I knew that Charlie would be flying the jet in with the support team in the next thirty minutes. I took out my phone and arranged for rentals to be available. I'd just replaced my phone when the others reached me. Each of them had their game faces on.

My gaze went to Red. "When we get to five, do you think you can handle the monitors on your own?"

She gave me her saucy grin. "With both hands tied behind my back." She turned to Lester and winked.

From the pink tinge on my cousin's cheeks, I knew there had to be a story there, but we'd have to save that for another time. "Let's move. We're going through the building from the top down, and we aren't stopping until the only ones left are us and Chan."

Lester turned to the guys with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Let's lock and load. Time for some redecorating."

On the plus side, each RangeMan was designed exactly the same, so even though we didn't work here on a daily basis, we knew every inch of the building because we knew RangeMan Trenton inside out. From the roof, we went down one flight of stairs to the seventh floor, where Chan's apartment was located.

I knocked on the door to let Tank know that we were coming through, and then we swept the floor for any surprises. The seventh floor was, as I'd expected, clean. From there, we moved down to the sixth floor, where the Swedish couple lived. Liam took care of the building, while Ingrid took care of the men. Gunner had hired them when he took over the Miami office, and until recently, I'd had no reason to believe they weren't trustworthy.

The door opened, and Ingrid stood there with her arms folded across her chest, a sour look on her face. But it was the look of stark terror in her eyes that told me all was not as it appeared. "This is our home. You have no business here."

"You were at the meeting this morning. The order to vacate includes you and your husband."

"_No! _You can't do this to us. Where we go? How we live?"

"You should have thought about that when you sided against Chan."

Her gaze flicked to somewhere inside the apartment, but she hurriedly tuned back to say, "That yellow-bellied coward. Where is he? Somewhere safe while you do his dirty work?"

Red stepped forward. "All you need to know is that your cushy job is over. Get out, or I'll personally throw you out."

Ingrid's eyes widened, as if she wasn't expecting there to be a woman with us. Her gaze once again darted between us and something—or someone—just out of sight.

Eight years in combat situations had honed my survival instinct to a razor's edge. I motioned to Lester to get Red back, and I kicked the door completely open. Hans—one of the two who had been on front-desk duty when we arrived—stood there with an automatic weapon aimed in our direction. Just that fast, every one of us had our guns out and trained on him.

He paled. Sweat beaded down his face, and there was a slight tremor in the hand on the trigger.

Rambo moved like lighting and had his shirt ripped open to expose enough explosives to take out the whole top two floors. Without waiting for permission, Rambo started working on disarming it.

My eyes narrowed. Ingrid didn't look like she was capable of devising something this intricate. I turned to Hans and demanded, "What's going on?"

He was shaky but doing his best to stand firm. The look he gave Ingrid seemed to be apologetic. "When Aunt Ingrid came here to work with her husband, she got Liam to arrange it so my brother and I would get hired as well. We've known for some time that Liam is dirty, but we've done what we can to protect our aunt. After the meeting this morning, Liam was especially volatile, so we came up to check on her. That's when he said he'd make sure you paid for daring to come here and ruin everything. He held a gun to my aunt's head and said if I didn't put this on, he'd kill her."

He shook his head. "Once I had it on, he made my brother go with him to set some more explosives. He has the trigger switch and told him if he didn't, he'd blow both of us up."

The man before me could be a consummate liar. However, I considered myself a good judge of character, in spite of what had happened here. I didn't think he was lying. I nodded. "When you're free, you'll take your aunt and leave the building. We'll handle the rest."

A look of pain crossed his face.

I could see from his expression that he wanted to argue. The soldier in him won out, and he said, "Yes, sir."

Rambo took the explosives off him and made sure they were rendered useless.

Hans offered me his weapon.

I shook my head as I told him, "You'll need it to help protect your aunt. We know your brother is being coerced. We'll do what we can to help him."

"Thank you."

Ingrid looked at her nephew for a moment and then turned to me. "Liam likes going to the third floor for some reason. I don't know that it helps…but I tell you anyway."

"Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

Just to be on the safe side, we went through every part of the sixth floor. When nothing turned up, we moved down to the fifth floor, where Lester got Red set up at the monitors and Chan joined us. I read him in on what happened and noticed the look of relief on his face when I mentioned the brothers seemed to be on our side. I lifted an eyebrow in question.

Chan shook his head. "I like those two and consider them friends. I would have hated to find out that they weren't any more trustworthy than the rest of the team."

"Is there anyone else that you considered a friend?"

He shook his head. "No. The rest of them were nice to my face, but the minute I turned my back, they were undermining me at every turn."

We secured the fifth floor and then moved down to the fourth. As we reached the landing, Hector stepped out of the shadows.

I looked at my men. "We'll do this in teams. Two men go in and two stand guard. Let's move out."

The door opened, and after making sure there wasn't someone waiting to riddle us with bullets, we moved onto the floor. Tank and I took the first door on the right, with Hector and Rambo standing guard. Chan and Lester took the door on the left, with Rodriguez and Bobby standing guard. We didn't bother to knock, since I had the master key fob that would open every door in this building.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the baseball bat coming my way and dove forward into a roll, bringing my weapon up and aiming it at the man wielding the bat.

Riley looked at me with derision. "Figures you'd make this an unfair fight. You're a coward just like Chan. Hitler had it right with his white-power ideals."

I handed my weapon to Tank and held my hands out in a palms-up gesture. "You think you can take me? Have at it."

Riley rushed me, much like a wrestler would go after an opponent. I didn't feel the need to cushion my punches. From the little the man had said when we'd come it, I was guessing we'd just found the hub for the rash of hate crimes that had been occurring lately. It also explained why only the business owners who were minorities were targeted. The majority of their workers were nice, but there were a few working from within to destroy the business, much like I suspected this group was trying to do to RangeMan. As wrestlers go, Riley was mediocre. I was a hand-to-hand combat expert, though. For me, this was child's play. He was down in seconds with a couple of blows, and I knew he wouldn't be moving anytime soon.

There was a garbage shoot on this floor. I lifted the ass-wipe and carried him out of the apartment and over to the access panel. Tank had a grin on his face as he opened the flap so I could dump the bastard. Once I'd let go of him, I didn't bother to wait until he hit the dumpster before turning back toward the next apartment on my side.

Lester stood waiting, an inert shape in a fireman's carry over his shoulder and a gleam in his eyes that spoke volumes.

The corner of my mouth lifted, and I moved aside so he'd have the access he needed.

The next twenty minutes was like doing a movie, where the actors had to repeat their same actions over and over in order to get a scene just right. By the time we got to the last apartments, we had the process down to under three minutes, from entering the apartment till the body was dumped down the chute.

We met at the stairwell door and prepared to go down to three. This was going to be the trickiest because Ingrid had said that Liam liked spending time on the third floor. Our approach was fast, silent, and deadly. There were six of them at the entry point, and we took them all out instantaneously.

A roar of rage sounded from behind, and I whirled to see Liam running for us with an automatic weapon in his hand. As he brought it up, preparing to fire, I took aim and fired before he even had a chance to get the gun at firing height.

The look of dawning horror on his face was replaced with determination, and he looked at a device he had clenched in his left fist. He moved to act, but a knife sailed past me into his wrist, and he lost his grip on the trigger of the bomb.

Rambo flew through the air and landed on the floor in time to grab the device. He was up in seconds and moving through the area to find Free, Hans's brother.

The rest of us fanned out to help look. There was no need to keep an eye on Liam, since he was dead.

It was Rodriguez who called out. "I found him."

The rest of us moved in the direction of his voice, and when we got there, it was to see Free strapped to a chair with explosives strapped to him.

Rambo turned to look at me. "This is going to take a little more effort than the last one. Not only does he have the C4 strapped to him, but there are also the motion sensors that will prevent us from just cutting the wires and taking the vest off him."

"Can you do it?"

He nodded. "I can do it. But it will take time. I'm guessing that will give whoever is left a chance to get ready for the attack that's coming their way. If the rest of you move forward while I disarm this, you'll catch them by surprise."

"All right." I looked at the others. "Hector will stay with you. If you run into anything that will require more hands than you have, he'll be here, and you'll also have someone to watch your back."

Rambo grinned. "Fine by me."

The second floor was suspiciously quiet, but we did manage to find several IEDs. Disposing of them took a bit of time, but I was betting we were still going to arrive a lot earlier than they were thinking. We moved out to the first floor, where we encountered a couple of men that appeared to be the lookouts. We didn't bother with trying to explain the error of their ways to them; instead, we just took them out and moved the bodies so anyone coming to check on them wouldn't have any forewarning.

When we neared the last room on the first floor, voices sounded. The speaker was talking about getting the last shipment out before we shut them down. Laughter sounded, and a voice I recognized said, "The Mighty Manoso isn't capable of taking me out. How do you think I was able to get so tight in here?"

The beast inside roared with rage, and I was ready to act. The door crashed open, and I trained my weapon on Chan's predecessor, Gunner. "Looks to me like you've been taken out."

He waived his hand in the air, indicating the men around him. The sneer on his face was much like that of the men we'd encountered on the fourth floor. "I run things here. Your little lapdog couldn't see his way out of a paper sack."

"You're done here."

He handed his gun to the man beside him. "Then come and make me leave."

I handed my weapons to Tank, and the fight began. It was fast and dirty, but he didn't land a blow. Instead, I'd taken him out in under a minute. When I finished with him, I turned to the rest of them. "Who's next?"

They looked at the bloody mess that was Gunner, and from the looks on their faces, I knew that the majority of them had just surrendered; they just didn't know it yet. Only three of the men in the room were willing to carry on with the plan. All three of them moved at once, and I was ready for them. The ease with taking them out told me that Gunner had failed to carry out the hiring practices that I'd put in place for all new hires.

This time when I had them all down, I looked at the others and told them, "You have five minutes to get out of my building."

Hickory took a step closer. "Would you consider letting some of us stay? I really do like this job."

In answer, I stared at him until his face turned red and he turned away. Before he walked out of the room, he turned to say, "You're making a mistake just dismissing us. We're good workers."

I waited till he was at the door before I said, "Hickory."

He turned to face me.

"When you chose to side with the men who were trying to take down my company, you cut your own throat. I don't owe you anything. Your second chance was when I told you to leave at the meeting this morning. There is no third chance."

My gaze went to each man in turn. None of them could meet my gaze. A voice from behind me told me that the support team was now in residence. "Looks like you had all the fun, boss."

I turned to Terminator. "You can have the fun of making sure these guys leave the building. Red is watching the monitors, so a couple of you might want to go and relieve her."

As the men moved to comply with the orders they'd been given, I looked back toward the men who were no longer welcome here.

Hickory shook his head. "We were wrong. I guess it's too late to say we're sorry."

"What would you do if it was your business?"

He shrugged. "Same as you. It's just a bitter pill to swallow."

We went through the rest of the building just to make sure, but there was no one else. I told Chan to get some rest while he could and put Ram in charge while the rest of us made our way to the house. I knew the instant I walked inside that something was wrong. The smell of burnt appliances combined with paint was overwhelming. I headed to the kitchen and took in the destruction. All of that went to the back burner as soon as I saw Stephanie standing there with a pair of crutches.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Stephanie's POV**

Sunlight filtering into the room pulled me from sleep. I tried to fight it by turning over to the other side, but that only seemed to make things brighter. Giving up, I stretched as I prepared to get out of bed. The first thing I did when my eyes opened was to look at the bedside clock. My eyes registered the time, but my brain refused to acknowledge the truth of what I saw.

I rocketed out of bed and raced to the bathroom, where I took the fastest shower in history. When I returned to the bedroom, I quickly dressed and then checked out the alarm clock on the nightstand once again. The alarm was set to go off at four a.m., and from everything I could see, there was no reason to believe that it hadn't done just that.

Sitting down hard on the bed, I tried to remember if I'd heard the alarm. I vaguely remembered a dream that I'd had while I was sleeping, about a giant trying to wake me up and a mosquito buzzing around my head. What if that buzzing was the alarm clock sounding, and what if the giant was in fact Ranger trying to wake me up? The big question was, why hadn't he?

Letting out a sigh, I stood and headed out to see if Lula was awake yet.

Logic dictated that the first place to try was the kitchen. As I neared that area of the house, the sounds of pots and pans told me that she was indeed awake, but smell was the first thing that registered, and I stepped up my pace. When I stepped through into the kitchen, my eyes widened in shock at the scene before me.

I scanned the area, but the object I was looking for was already in Lula's hands, and from the look of the kitchen, there was nothing left inside to help us. Another quick scan of the kitchen was all it took to spot what I needed. Moving quickly, I gathered everything that would be needed and started pouring the ingredients into a large bowl. When it started foaming, I tossed the contents of the bowl onto the stove, where whatever Lula had been cooking was in flames.

When the fire went out, I took a sigh of relief.

Lula looked like a wild woman, with the powder from the fire extinguisher she'd tried using coating every part of her as well as about a third of the kitchen. Unfortunately, it was the third that was nowhere near the stove where the fire had been.

My hand went up to my mouth so that I could hide the smile that was trying to slip out. I asked, "What were you trying to make?"

She looked around, as if she couldn't believe what had just happened. "Huhn?"

I motioned to the stove. "What were you trying to make?"

Her voice was barely a whisper. "I was hungry. I thought I'd try making some eggs and bacon. You know how I like extra crispy bacon." Her mouth started to quiver. "I was doing pretty good until I tried to flip the eggs, and I couldn't find anything to scoop them with. I figured I could just flip them like those omelet makers at the country club do, but something went wrong."

Looking around at the mess left in the kitchen told me that we had several hours' worth of cleaning to do, and I was kind of hungry myself. Pursing my lips, I asked, "How about if we go to that little café a few blocks over and get some brunch, and then we can come back and start cleaning?"

Lula nodded.

Grinning, I said, "You might want to change before we head out."

Lula turned, looking at herself in the mirror before letting out a scream.

I laughed. "It's not as bad as it looks. I'll make sure the fire is out while you go clean up."

We felt better once we'd eaten. The walk there had given us the chance to clear our lungs of the smoke from the kitchen fire. Now that we were sitting here drinking our coffee, we had the unenviable task of going back and cleaning up the mess. There was no way that Ranger wouldn't take one look at his kitchen and know what had happened.

"I got it!"

I turned to Lula. The gleam in her eyes had my stomach doing somersaults. Well, my stomach wasn't actually doing them, but the feeling in my stomach made me think it was doing them. I was afraid to ask. Seeing Lula's excitement turn into her stubborn look told me that ignoring her comment wasn't going to work, so I bit the bullet and asked, "What?"

"There's a paint store over there, and next door is an appliance store. If we can get the paint and appliances, we can fix the kitchen so as they'll never know there was even a fire."

Nothing about this plan sounded right, but I was willing to give it a try since I knew that Lula wouldn't give up on it until I agreed. "All right. Let's go."

The best thing about the kitchen being painted white was that there was no having to match paint in order to get it right. Thirty minutes later, we were entering the house once again. I'd felt funny about charging the stuff at the appliance store, but once the owner knew where he was delivering the merchandise to, he'd insisted that there was no need for me to pay for anything right then, which was a good thing because there was no way Lula and I had the ten grand for the stove.

I looked at the portion of wall that had been damaged by the flames. That's when I realized that we had a problem. In the weeks we'd been living here, I had yet to see any sign of a tool or ladder. It would be easy enough to paint the lower portion of the wall, but not even if I stood on the counter could I reach the top of the wall that was slightly discolored.

Shaking my head, I looked over at Lula—who was looking at the same place I was—and said, "I don't think this is going to work."

There was some doubt on her face as she replied, "Nah. We just get what we can, and they won't even notice the rest."

I let out a sigh. Well, we already had the paint. We might as well give it a try. I grabbed some garbage bags and laid them down on the counter and floor around where we would be painting. I didn't want to make an even bigger mess trying to clean up the first one. Once everything was in place, Lula and I moved the stove out from the wall and got started.

Who would have guessed that painting a wall could be such hard work? A job that should have taken less than an hour ended up taking us over six hours. I reached up to get the last little bit and just managed to swipe at the spot before I lost my footing and slipped from the stacked chairs we'd put together to act as a ladder. Unfortunately, my hand hit the paint tray as I went down and the oomph sound indicated that Lula had been closer than I'd imagined.

"You mind getting up now, or are you planning on taking a nap?"

It took me a second to catch my breath, and then I managed to get out, "Yeah, I'm up."

"Well, that ain't what it feels like from down here."

I twisted to get up, and the pain in my foot was so severe I thought I was going to pass out. "Oh _shit_!"

I felt movement under me, as I wasn't able to get totally off Lula. In her bid for freedom, she jarred my leg, and pain shot through my foot again. This time I wasn't able to keep the contents of my stomach down.

"You okay?"

My voice was hoarse as I replied, "Just peachy, thanks."

Looking around, I saw the results of my fall. The garbage bags that I'd put down on the floor were splattered with paint, but the fall had displaced them enough that the paint from the pan was even now seeping into the cracks of the inlaid stone floor. "Oh, man! We are so toast."

"Now don't be thinking that way. All we gotta do is clean it up, and no one will know."

A glance at the clock told me that we only had another half hour before the people from the appliance store would be bringing the stove. "We're going to have to hurry. Can you get a bucket of soapy water?"

"Yeah. Be right back."

While I waited, I started rolling up the garbage bags so there wouldn't be a chance of making even more of a mess than what we already had. I'd just managed to stuff them into the trash can when Lula returned with a bucket of soapy water and scrub brushes. We both grabbed a brush and started cleaning.

Looking around at the now clean floor, it looked like we'd been able to get the majority of the paint before it had had a chance to seep into the crevasses between the stone.

Lula smiled. "See. I told ya that we'd get everything all nice and tidy so no one would know a thing."

"Looks like you were right. Can you help me up?"

She bit her lip as she looked at me. "I don't want ta hurt you."

"You won't. Once you help me up, I can hop up on the counter here so I'm out of the way."

Lula nodded. "Okay."

It took us several starts and stops, and my bottom lip felt like it had been shredded to pieces from all the biting on it that I'd done, but Lula finally managed to help me into a standing position. The doorbell sounded and I told her to go answer it while I worked at pulling myself up onto the counter so I could sit there while the stove was being installed.

The sound of wheels turning had me looking in the direction Lula had gone. Two men came through the door, a dolly loaded with a stove in front of them. The taller of the two tipped his ball cap to me and said, "Howdy. I'm Allen, and this is Jeff. We'll have this stove installed in just a second, and then we'll take the old one to the store for disposal."

Allen looked around, and his eyes widened. "It looks like you had a fire here with this stove."

"Yeah… Is that a problem?"

"Well, we won't be able to hook the new stove up until the wiring has been inspected by a professional."

Lula and I looked at each other. She grimaced before saying, "That might pose a problem."

Jeff shrugged. "We can't skirt around safety. If we were to plug this stove in and anything happened to you ladies, we'd feel right awful. You give us a call as soon as the house has been inspected, though, and we'll get it hooked right up."

I grimaced. "Do you know any good restaurants that would deliver food? Plus, we'd need some way to keep it hot."

The two looked at each other, as if they were debating on how to answer the question. It was Allen who seemed to be the elected speaker, as he cleared his throat. "Jim's Pizza Heaven is just down the street. They don't have the best food, but they could get it here at a moment's notice. I take it you don't want your fellas to know about the fire?"

Lula folded her arms across her chest. "Not if we can help it."

"Well, there is another option, but it would be costly."

Lula waved to the area where the men had just put the stove. "Costlier than a ten-thousand-dollar stove and painting a wall?"

Jeff grimaced. "When you put it like that…"

"Ain't no other way to put it."

The two men looked at each other for several seconds before they seemed to come to a decision. Allen was the one to say, "All right. Helga, my wife, is an excellent cook and she could make you a really awesome meal. I could bring it up here for you, and no one would even know that you didn't cook it yourself."

I was having serious reservations. I figured they were right about needing an electrician to look at the wiring, but we didn't know this Helga, and for that matter, we didn't know Jeff or Allen either. For all we knew, they were just like Rangoonie.

My stomach felt like it was tied in knots, and at the moment, I didn't know if that was because of what the men were offering or because of the pain in my foot. The question was, did I call them on it, or did I play along until they were out of the house and then tell them to go take a hike.

"Maybe you could give us Helga's number so when we are ready, we can give her a call."

The smile that passed between the two men told me all I needed to know, and I knew that I wouldn't be using any number that either one of them gave me.

Allen handed me a card. "Be sure and call fifteen minutes before you want to eat."

Playing along like I really planned to give the woman a call, I nodded. I didn't have much choice but to stay in the kitchen while Lula saw them on their way.

My stomach still felt like it was on a rollercoaster, so I struggled down from the counter and hobbled over to where the stove was placed. I pursed my lips and ran my hand over the surface. I wasn't surprised when my fingers encountered a listening device on the underside of the lip.

Lula joined me.

My finger went up to my lips to let her know not to say anything. I mimed that I needed a glass of water, and she quickly got one and brought it over to me. I dropped the listening device in the water, and it fizzled for several seconds before going up in a puff of smoke.

A quick glance at the clock told me that it was getting close to the time that Ranger would be home. Looking around the room, I didn't think they would notice anything out of the ordinary, as long as we didn't need to use the stove. Somehow, we had to convince the guys that going out to eat would be the thing to do tonight.

Turning to look at Lula, I asked, "Can you help me to get to my room?"

"Uhn-huhn. I'll just pick you up and carry you."

I rolled my eyes. "No need to be sarcastic. If we don't want the guys to find out about the fire, we're both going to need to change, and we're also going to have to convince them that we need to go out to dinner tonight."

"That all? Why, that sounds like a piece of cake."

She left the room for several minutes, and when she came back, she had a pair of crutches with her.

My eyes widened in surprise. "Where did you find those?"

She grinned. "I was looking in closets, and there they was."

I took them from her, and it was obvious that they would need some serious adjustment. Once I had them at the length that I needed, I took them for a test drive. Lula followed closely behind as we left the kitchen.

She stayed behind me all the way to my room, and once I'd gone inside, she yelled through the door, "I'm gonna go change."

"All right. I'll meet you in the kitchen."

A shower was out of the question, but I went into the bathroom and cleaned up as best as I could. Fifteen minutes later—after taking a detour to the office so that I could type in the information I knew about the two men who had brought the stove, as well as Al's, the place I'd bought it, so that I could see if there was something in their backgrounds to cause me to have the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and show why they had placed a bug on it—I was slowly making my way toward the kitchen when I heard the sound of someone at the front door. I tried to hurry, as I wanted to talk with Lula a moment before we dealt with the guys.

I was just about to the kitchen door when Lula joined me, saying, "I quick put all the rags and things we used in the wash before cleanin' up myself, so we good to go."

The minute I walked into the kitchen, I knew we were screwed.

A squeak from behind me had me glancing over my shoulder to see Lula with a dumbfounded look on her face.

I let out a sigh as I told her, "There's no way we can pass this off like nothing happened."

"I don't understand it." She turned to me, as if she expected me to miraculously make everything change so it wasn't as it was.

I shook my head. "I wonder if we should have cleaned the walls before painting them?"

Just then, a mound of suds came creeping into the kitchen from the laundry room.

_Shit!_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**Stephanie's POV**

The sound of the alarm being disengaged told me that Ranger was about to join us.

Lula panicked, flapping her hands in the air, and in a screeching whisper, she asked, "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?"

Looking around frantically, I told her, "Flip the light switch off."

She did, and it darkened the room to the point that the wall was in shadow. Unfortunately, it also showed me that we hadn't done as great of a job on the floor as we'd thought.

Lula's eyes widened as she caught sight of the three-foot circle of speckled stone floor. "Uh-oh. How we gonna hide that?"

A tingling on the back of my neck told me it was too late to do anything. Turning, I saw that Ranger and Tank were standing in the doorway behind us.

Tank's jaw dropped as he looked at the room in horror.

I couldn't read Ranger's reaction. He had his blank face on. His gaze moved over the room, stopping first on the floor and then moving to the wall behind the stove, to the stove itself, and then finally to the ever creeping mound of suds coming from the laundry room, before his gaze moved to where I was standing. His eyes narrowed as they moved down my body before returning to meet my gaze. "Something you want to tell me, Babe?"

Letting out the breath that I'd been holding, I lifted a shoulder and said, "There was a little accident with the stove, and we tried to fix it."

I took the slight movement of his head as a nod. After several seconds, he said, "I was referring to why you're using the crutches, but we can go with the kitchen first if that's how you want to play it. I suppose I should have found out if either of you could cook before making the agreement."

Lula's hands plopped on her hips. "Are you sayin' I can't cook 'cause of one measly accident? Wasn't my fault you have nothing to flip eggs with. How you expect us ta cook without the proper equipment?"

Ranger didn't comment. He just walked over toward the sink and opened one of the drawers, taking out the very pancake turner that Lula hadn't been able to find earlier.

For answer, Lula just mumbled, "Oh."

He returned the pancake turner to the drawer. "So, what happened to the wall and floor?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but one look from him and I knew I wasn't the one he wanted answering. Lula did her imitation of a fish, opening and closing her mouth, and then finally her cheeks turned pink and I recognized the stubborn glint in her eyes before a breath exploded from her and she said, "I couldn't find the flipper thingie, so I tried to toss the pan so it'd flip, and it went all over the place, and then the flames started, and I couldn't think what to do, so I grabbed the fire extinguisher and tried to get it to work, but it went everywhere, and I was afraid the whole house was gonna catch on fire, and the next thing I knew, Stephanie was there, and she mixed something up ta throw on the flames, and then the fire went out." She took a breath and promptly burst into tears.

Tank looked like a deer caught in headlights as he watched Lula, but suddenly, there was a softening and he moved closer to her, patting her back as he crooned, "There, there, Mama Bear. Ranger ain't mad at you. We're just happy you ladies weren't hurt."

The tingling on the back of my neck was going crazy. When I turned, I saw that Ranger was right beside me, his blank face was still firmly in place. "Now, maybe we can get to why you're using the crutches, unless you want to explain why there are suds flowing into the kitchen from the laundry room."

I smiled weakly at him. "I'm not sure about the suds." I waved my hand to indicate the crutches. "As for this, we couldn't find a ladder when we were painting, so we stacked one chair on another. When I took the final swipe, I lost my balance and fell."

It might have been the lighting, but for a half of a second, I thought he paled before his color returned. "I take it you haven't seen a doctor?"

Lifting my shoulder in a slight shrug, I said, "There hasn't been time. We had to get the floor cleaned before the paint set in, and then the delivery drivers came from Al's Appliances, and when they left, I found the bug, and then we had to clean up."

"You bought a stove from Al's Appliances? What did you use for money?"

My eyes slid away from him, but I could feel my cheeks heating. "When the guy found out where they were delivering the stove, he insisted that he open an account where I could pay so much a month."

Ranger put his finger under my chin and lifted my head so that I was looking him in the eye. "That's a ten-thousand-dollar stove, Babe. You'd be paying on it for the rest of your life at the interest rates that Al charges."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

His thumb ran down my cheek. "Didn't you read the payment agreement?"

My bottom lip went between my teeth. He used his thumb to free my lip before gently soothing the sore area that I'd bitten. His heated eyes met mine, and my breathing quickened as his head lowered toward mine. Before his mouth could make contact, the alarm went off, pulling us apart, and Ranger immediately moved through the house toward the front door.

The sounds of cursing reached us, even though I couldn't hear exactly what was being said.

Tank chuckled. "Come on, ladies. Let's go into the den and have a seat."

I struggled after them toward the den. We'd just gotten seated when we were joined by Ranger, four men, and a beautiful redheaded woman about my age. The guys were all taller than Ranger, and although they were definitely alpha males, it was obvious—at least to me—that Ranger was the man in charge.

One man moved away from the group over to where I was sitting. When he knelt down at my feet, I looked at Ranger to see what was going on.

Ranger winked at me. "This is the company medic. He's going to take a look at your foot."

I started to argue, but the piercing stare that locked on to me told me not to push it, so I stopped while I was behind. I winced as the man took my foot in his hands. He was being gentle, but by now the foot was three times its normal size and it hurt worse than my arm had when I'd fallen from the garage roof when I was four. Looking for a distraction, I decided it couldn't hurt to give the medic a hard time.

I batted my eyes at him as I said, "Gee, I don't normally let strange men hold my foot before I even know their name." A hiss of pain broke off what I'd been about to say, and I looked around helplessly.

Ranger's voice was harsh as he said, "I asked you to take a look at it, Brown, not further incapacitate her."

The man in front of me held his hands up in surrender. "I'm being as gentle as I possibly can, Ranger. I really think she needs x-rays."

"No way! I'm not going to any hospital."

The man Ranger had called Brown frowned as he carefully took my foot in his hands. Shaking his head, he looked up at Ranger. "I think she broke it. We won't know for sure until she has x-rays."

I grimaced. "Can't you just put a wrap on it?"

He shook his head. "If it_ is_ broken like I suspect, you're going to need a cast on it."

I let out a sigh as I mumbled, "I hate hospitals."

Ranger knelt down, taking my hands in his. "I'll stay with you, Babe, and I won't let them keep you."

"Promise?"

The corner of his mouth lifted into a partial smile. "I promise."

"All right…since I don't think I'm going to get out of this."

Looking around, I noticed that the others in the room seemed to be a bit awestruck. Ranger stood, then lifted me in his arms. I went to protest that I could walk, but a slight shake of his head told me it would be pointless to say anything. As we headed out of the room, I remembered what the delivery guys had said. "You should probably tell them not to use the stove. The guys that brought it said the entire electrical system would need to be checked before it was plugged in. Oh, and did I tell you I found a bug on it?"

The redhead shuddered. "Not a spider I hope."

That struck me as funny and I grinned. "No, not that kind of bug. There was a listening device on the stove. I put it in a glass of water to destroy it, but you can never be too careful."

Lula looked nervous as she asked, "You want me to go with you, Steph?"

I shook my head and said, "There's no reason to ruin both our nights. You stay here with these guys."

She looked relieved.

Ranger didn't stop as he carried me through the house to the garage where the Porsche Turbo was parked. After carefully placing me in the passenger seat, he climbed behind the wheel. We were at the hospital way too soon for my liking. Once again, he lifted me, only this time, it was to carry me inside.

I was dreading the long wait followed by the numerous unnecessary tests, but we were shown right to a treatment room, and within fifteen minutes, the doctor was confirming that I'd broken the metatarsal bone on the little toe side of my left foot. Once I was fitted for a boot, I was given something for the pain as well as a prescription for pain meds and then sent on my way. This time, I didn't even try to protest as Ranger lifted me in his arms and carried me to the Porsche.

The minute I was seated in the car, I was pressing on the lever to lower the windows. I was feeling a bit loopy, and the fresh air would do me good. When the car didn't start moving, I turned to Ranger with a frown. "What's wrong?"

His gaze was steady as he said, "You need to fasten your seat belt."

I grinned as I leaned over and ran my forefinger down his chest. "Oh, yeah? And just who's going to make me?"

There was an odd look in his eyes as he leaned in close and said, "Did you have any alcohol before I got home?"

I shook my head emphatically. "Nope. Can't drink worth a plugged nickel." And that was all it took to send me into a fit of giggles.

Ranger pulled out his phone, and after a few seconds, he asked, "Brown, what are the side effects of Vicodin?" He paused as he studied me. "She acts like she's falling-down drunk."

I leaned over so that my head was resting against his chest as my hand ran up his inner thigh. Just before I reached the Promised Land, his hand covered mine, and he refused to let me explore any further. I lifted my head so I could look at him as I pouted. A low groan sounded, and then Ranger tossed the phone onto the dash.

"Have you had anything to eat today?"

"Yeah, Lula and I ate at the café near your house about eleven."

"Anything since then?"

I shook my head emphatically once again before saying, "Nope."

"Are you allergic to any medicines?"

I frowned. "My mom said something about a medicine making me act strange when I broke my arm. Why?"

"Do you have your phone?"

"Nope."

He leaned forward to grab his phone off the dash. "Use mine."

Once again, I shook my head emphatically. "Oh no. No. No. No. I'm not calling her and listening to her go on and on and on and on and… Uh-uh. Nope. Not me. No way, no how."

Ranger proved then that he knew how to play hard ball. "Then I'll have no choice but to carry you back into that hospital and tell them I think you are having a reaction to the pain meds they gave you. I think you know that they won't let you leave until they are sure you aren't having a reaction."

I glowered at him, but the only thing I said was a mumbled, "_Shit_!"

Feeling frustrated because I didn't have a choice, I took his cell as I mumbled swear words in Spanish to the man sitting beside me. Spanish was my go to when I was extremely mad and wanted to swear. It'd worked beautifully when I'd been in high school Spanish, because my mom had no idea what I was saying and I could convince her I was practicing my homework.

I was still mumbling in Spanish about the jackass who was making me call the warden and how when I got done with this call, I'd love nothing more than to drop his ass in the middle of the ocean and let him be shark bait. Of course, then I commented on what a shame that such a fine specimen of manhood would be in the belly of some shark instead of in bed doing things that would give me the doomsday orgasm.

The call connected, and Grandma's voice sounded on the other end. I breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Hey, Grandma. I have a question for you"

"Stephanie! How's it going in Miami? Run into any hot-looking guys with great packages?"

I rolled my eyes at Grandma's words but couldn't help but smile. "As a matter of fact…"

I left it there, because if I got Grandma interested enough, she'd carry the phone to her room so she could give me the third degree in private. A creak filtered through the phone lines, and I knew she was even now making her way upstairs.

"Okay, baby girl. Spill. I want to know all about him."

I let out a laugh. "I'll tell you later. Right now, I need to ask you about the medicine that made me act funny when I was little. Do you remember what it was called?"

"You mean when you broke your arm jumping off the garage roof because you wanted to fly?"

"Yeah."

There was silence on the line for several seconds before she said, "I know it started with a V."

Uh-oh. I frowned as I asked, "Was it Vicodin?"

"Bingo! That's it. I remember. Your mom was very upset with the doctor over that one. Apparently she took you with her to the meat market after they'd given you a shot and the doctor had put a cast on your arm. She was mortified because you were acting like you were drunk and the whole neighborhood was talking. When she called the doctor, he said the safest thing to do was to have someone stay with you until the drug left your system."

"Okay, thanks, Grandma. Is there any other medicine I should be warned about?"

"Nope. That's the only one."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later." I paused for just a second and then added, "And I'll tell you all about the other."

"He there with you right now?"

Using her own word, I said, "Bingo."

"Okay. But you owe me, baby girl."

My smile got bigger as I said, "Don't worry. I'll tell you all about it."

"I'm going to hold you to that. It's about time, Stephanie. I knew leaving Trenton would be good for you."

I grimaced. If nothing else, it had stopped the letters and phone calls. "I gotta go now, Grandma. I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay. Take care of yourself."

I ended the call and handed the phone back to Ranger as I turned in his direction.

He was looking at me with a strange gleam in his eyes.

Ignoring the look, I told him, "Apparently I'm not allergic to the Vicodin, but it affects me the same as alcohol."

"And that is?"

I grinned up at him. "One drink, and I'm drunk as a skunk. Grandma said Mom was told to just make sure someone stayed with me till the drug was out of my system."

There was a flash of heat in his eyes before he hooded them. "Good to know."

He started the car and put it in motion. I snuggled into him and closed my eyes as the drugs seemed to be affecting more than I was comfortable with. The feeling that I got from being close to him was the last thing I remembered.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**Stephanie's POV**

The first thing I became aware of was the fact that I was burning up. It was like a sauna, and I wondered who'd turned off the central air. My eyes opened as the thought occurred to me that maybe the fire in the kitchen had affected the central air, and that was the reason for it being so hot. After all, the delivery men from Al's said we would need to get the electrical system checked out. Of course, once my eyes were open, I realized that the reason for the heat might not necessarily be caused by what had happened yesterday…or at least not because of the air conditioning being off…maybe.

There was a man in bed with me.

Tilting my head, I looked up to see Ranger was indeed lying beside me in bed, his head propped on his hand. The second our gazes met, he smiled, and I felt the jolt of heat all the way to my toes.

My eyes widened as I took stock of my body. My head was killing me, but otherwise, I wasn't sore like I would expect to be after an intense night of making love. What's more, I was still wearing the bottoms of my matching panties and bra set. I lifted the blanket and looked down. The good news was that I was wearing the oversize T-shirt that I liked to wear to bed. The bad news was I had no recall as to how I'd gotten out of my clothes and into the T-shirt.

I looked up at Ranger again, and he smiled, then winked at me.

Feeling the heat in my cheeks, I imagined them getting red. Swallowing hard, I opened my mouth to say something, but Ranger leaned down till his mouth was a whisper away from mine as his free hand cupped my jaw.

"I'm ready to work on that doomsday orgasm now, Babe."

_Help!_

I needed a dose of grease and syrupy sugar that only the golden arches could deliver. On the other hand, having Ranger this close was doing things to my body that hadn't happened in a while. Before I could act either way, a knock sounded on the door.

The smell of French fries was faint, but whether someone had actually gone out to get some or if I'd conjured up the smell when I started thinking about "the cure" was unknown. I went to get up, but pain sliced through my foot, and I remembered that I'd broken a bone.

I turned back to Ranger. "If those are real French fries that I smell, I really need them right now. My head is killing me. What was it that I was drinking?"

Ranger sat up. "You were given Vicodin. Apparently it acts like alcohol would in your system."

Bits and pieces from the night before started filtering in. I remembered cursing Ranger in Spanish as I made the call. I vaguely recalled saying something about a doomsday orgasm before the call was answered. Suddenly, Ranger's words when I woke up came back to me. I slowly looked in his direction. The gleam in his eyes led me to believe he knew I was remembering what I'd said the night before. If the Vicodin hadn't had such an effect on me, I'd have used another language besides Spanish to curse him out.

My hands came up to cover my face as I groaned with mortification.

I felt the bed shift and peeked through my fingers to see Ranger stand and make his way to the door. My mouth watered as I took in every delicious inch of him. The only mar on the visual was that a skimpy pair of black silk boxers covered strategic areas—well, nearly all strategic areas. I moaned. The way he moved and the glimpses I got of his manhood had me hotter than when I'd first surfaced from sleep.

The smell of fries got stronger, and I licked my lips. The sudden sound of Ranger's voice brought me back to the present.

"I certainly hope it's the fries you're anticipating devouring, although I wouldn't be adverse to other suggestions."

I looked up to see he had a white bag and a drink container in his hands. He sat back down on the bed and handed me the bag.

Stuffing several fries into my mouth, I closed my eyes as I started to chew, and another moan escaped. This was exactly what I needed. I held my hand out, and when he just looked at me expectantly, I pointed to the drink in his hand.

He handed that over as well as I continued consuming "the cure." It took me only a matter of minutes to down the super-sized French fries and drink the Coke and then I looked over to where Ranger was seated on the side of the bed. "So, how did you know what I would want when I woke up?"

He grinned. "Lula made sure we knew that whoever went after the cure should bring her back a couple of breakfast sandwiches as well."

I laughed. "That sounds like Lula." I bit my lip as I debated whether to bring the next subject up, but I knew that I owed him an apology, so I took a deep breath and said, "I'm really sorry about your kitchen. I thought that we'd covered all of our bases, but it seems we made more of a mess trying to cover it up. I would have told you, though."

His eyebrow rose. "The mess that you ladies made was child's play compared to what's in there now."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

He flicked the tip of my nose with his forefinger. "Let's get dressed, and I'll show you. You've heard the saying, 'A picture's worth a thousand words'?"

My eyes widened as I imagined several scenarios and wondered just how bad it could be. After all, Lula and I were pretty adept at making messes when we weren't even trying. I nodded, then let my gaze go to the leg that was in the walking boot. "Do you know what happened to the crutches that I was using last night?"

"We left them in the kitchen, but they won't be of much use to you now."

"Why not?"

He chuckled. "Let's just say it's covered under the thousand words, and you'll have to see it to believe it."

Another sigh escaped. "Any suggestions on how I'm going to get to the bathroom?"

Ranger stood and lifted me in his arms. "Consider me your personal chauffeur." His eyes locked with mine as he let loose with his mega-watt smile. "Who knows… We might even get to that doomsday orgasm."

I lowered my head to his shoulder as I mumbled, "I was afraid you'd heard that. What was I thinking? Why did I have to pick Spanish? Why not Latin or French, German, or Italian…? Anything but Spanish!"

In a perfectly executed hodge-podge of the very languages I'd just mentioned, Ranger showed me that no matter which of the languages I would have chosen, he would have known exactly what I was saying. "Any one of them would have worked. However, if you really want one that I wouldn't know, then, I'm sorry to say that none of them would work."

How he managed to switch from one language to the next with such rapid-fire speed without missing a beat, I didn't know, and that I was able to follow it was even more of a mystery. Then as a coup de grace, he switched to Russian, and although I had a harder time of following him, I was able to get the gist of what he was saying as he continued, "When I really want to confuse someone, I like to mix things up so they can't follow the conversation."

He set me down.

"I recognize that's Russian, and I got that you confuse people and they can't follow the conversation, but that's about it."

"That's pretty impressive, Babe. Just how many languages do you speak?"

I shrugged. "The ones I mentioned, and I know a little Arabic, and like I said, I could mostly understand the Russian that you were speaking, but that's about it."

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Give me a call when you're done in there, and we'll go get some real breakfast."

I frowned. "That's right. It's still morning. How did you get them to make French fries before ten thirty?"

"My guess is they sent Binkie."

I did a double take. "Binkie?"

"Hurry up, and I'll introduce you. He'll be leaving in a few minutes to head in to relieve the night shift."

I pointed him toward the door, and when he left, shutting the door behind him, I hurried to take care of Mother Nature's call and then hobbled over to the sink to wash up a bit. My hair looked like a flock of birds had set up home in it. A knock sounded on the door, and I called for Ranger to enter.

He was dressed in his SWAT black, and I was beginning to wonder if he owned another color of clothing. He lifted me in his arms and carried me through to the bedroom, where he stopped at the dresser so I could collect clothes, and then he sat me on the bed before he moved through to the attached office.

Five minutes later, I was still struggling to get the boot on over my jeans when Ranger re-entered the room. Without a word, he moved over to kneel in front of me, gently pulling my pant leg down and placing the boot in position so that he could fasten the straps. He helped me to stand up and then knelt once again to make sure the boot was fitting the way it should be. When he had it adjusted the way he wanted, he stood up and again lifted me in his arms.

We made our way through the house toward the kitchen. My mouth dropped in stunned disbelief at the scene before me when we stopped in the doorway.

Paint fumes permeated the air. The wall looked no better in the light of day than it had last night when we'd looked at it. However, that wasn't what had me looking on in stunned horror. The ten-thousand-dollar stove that Lula and I had ordered was in the middle of the floor in tiny pieces, as if someone had taken apart everything that was detachable.

I looked up at Ranger. My voice was barely more than a whisper as I asked, "What happened?"

"You mentioned something about a bug. The guys wanted to make sure there weren't any others hidden in the stove."

I looked at the mess on the floor and then back at Ranger. "They demolished it."

I felt the rumble of his body as he chuckled. "That they did."

Shaking my head, I took in the scene in front of me once again. Pieces of stove were everywhere—the floor, the counters, in the sink. There was even a burner sitting on the windowsill. Not only that, but there was grease everywhere—like the kind of grease someone has all over their hands after working on a car.

"I remember saying that I'd found the bug. Didn't they believe me?"

"Well, in our business, where there is one, there are usually more."

My eyes met Ranger's. "Why didn't they just sweep for them?"

He raised an eyebrow, and I pointed over to the windowsill, where a bug sweeper sat beside the piece of the burner.

Ranger threw his head back in laughter as he hitched me higher in his arms before carrying me through to the den. He set me on the sofa so my leg was up on the cushion before straightening up. "The delivery man should be here any minute, and then I can get you some real food."

My gaze locked with his. "I'm going to hold you to that. Just remember, your idea of food and mine aren't necessarily the same."

Ranger's hand cupped my cheek. My lips parted, and his eyes heated once more with desire. It felt like an inferno was blazing around us as he knelt down beside me, his head lowering. Just before his mouth reached mine, the sound of footsteps moving in our direction could be heard.

Ranger's head turned toward the door as we were joined by Tank and a few other people I didn't know, although I recognized the one Ranger had called Brown from last night.

The men came to a stop when they saw us. I noticed a redheaded woman with them and thought I'd seen her the night before, but I wasn't sure. She was standing beside a good-looking guy who had his arm hooked around her neck. The guy had coloring similar to Ranger's, only his hair was shorter and the man was a couple of inches taller. There was a definite twinkle in his eyes that spoke of someone who liked to joke around.

The man's gaze swung in my direction, and he grinned. "Looks like you'll be out of commission for a while there, Beautiful."

The redhead looked up at him, and at the same time, her hand came up and pinched his nipple.

He winced and looked down at the redhead. "What was that for, Red? You know no one can take your place in my heart."

"Yeah, I do know. But Beautiful?"

He leaned down and rubbed her nose with his. "Ah, don't be mad at me, gorgeous. It doesn't mean anything. Beautiful is what I call a lot of my female cousins."

Red's eyebrow rose. "She's not your cousin."

He grinned. "No, but…" He leaned down and whispered, "I think she's going to be Ranger's girl. So that's like being a cousin."

Ranger gave the man a wry look. "We're standing right here, Santos."

Once again, the man winced.

Just then, an incredibly good-looking man slapped Santos on the back. "Face it, buddy. You can't win this one."

Santos turned to the other man with a scowl. "Stick it, Binkie."

My eyes widened, and I looked up at Ranger. "I can understand how you got them to make the fries for you if he's the one you sent after the food."

Binkie stepped forward and bowed. His eyes gave the appearance that he was laughing as they met mine. "At your service, my lady."

There was no stopping the grin that appeared on my face. "I see you're not shy about it either." I looked over the group in front of me before asking, "So, which one of you destroyed my stove?"

Several pairs of surprised eyes swung to Ranger.

Tank's hand went up to cover the lower part of his face, which I had a suspicion was, at this moment, grinning widely from the look of devilment in his eyes.

Santos was the one who seemed to be the spokesman for the group, because he was the one to say, "Well, you mentioned finding a bug in _Ranger's_ stove, so we needed to check it out to make sure everything was secure."

I shook my head. "Ranger's stove caught on fire. That was my stove that was delivered, and you guys took it upon yourselves to tear it apart."

Red smirked, lowering her head as if she didn't want the others to see.

Just then, we were joined by a Hispanic man close to my size. He was a nice-looking man, but the teardrop tattoo under his eye told me there was more to him than it appeared. He tilted his head in the direction of the kitchen. In flawless Spanish, he asked, _"What happened?"_

Tank folded his arms across his chest and looked at Santos with a serious look that gave nothing away, much the same as Ranger, only Ranger perched on the arm of the sofa beside me and his right hand came to rest on my shoulder.

Brown seemed to find something extremely interesting on the floor, and Red still had her head lowered with the smirk on her face. Binkie was grinning ear to ear and pointed to indicate Santos. The conversation continued in Spanish as he said, _"Lester said we needed to make sure there weren't any more bugs in the stove after Ranger took the little lady to the hospital to get her foot looked at."_

The man with the tattoo frowned. _"Why didn't you just sweep for them?"_

Santos, Binkie, and two other men I didn't know yet all looked at each other oddly, as if they were expecting they would soon be the butt of several jokes.

Santos shook his head. _"No way were we getting into your stuff to find the sweeper, Hector."_

Hector's look turned puzzled. _"That's not my sweeper on the windowsill in the kitchen?"_

Leaning back into Ranger, I joined the conversation, sticking with the Spanish that the others were speaking. _"No. That's the sweeper I used after I found the bug that had been placed on the stove. I did a sweep to make sure there wasn't a second listening device, but I didn't find anything." _I frowned before adding, _"They used a specialized unit that hasn't been marketed yet. I'm not sure how they would have access to it, because they don't seem exceptionally bright."_

Hector's gaze studied me for several minutes before he asked, _"What makes you say that it's specialized?"_

I lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. _"The symbols on it indicate that it was made in Germany. However, the design model is one that Dr. Hans Borgstrom designed. He's a Swedish scientist working to help Aryan Nations throughout the U.S. as well as other countries, where they have gone to ground."_

I got a weird feeling in my stomach as every pair of eyes was suddenly focused on me.

The intensity in which the guys were looking at me was a bit daunting, and I tried to get even closer to Ranger. That didn't mean that I was going to let these men think they'd intimidated me in any way, though, so I lifted my chin and stared them down. There was a hint of something close to admiration in several of their gazes.

Before the conversation could continue, there was a high-pitched scream from the vicinity of the kitchen. I winced before tilting my head to Ranger and saying, "I would say it's a safe bet that Lula's up and about ready to join the party."

Tank barreled into the room, moving over by the window so he was as far away from the door as possible.

Lester did a double take as he was nearly knocked off his feet by the sudden movement, and only the fact that Red braced them so they wouldn't go crashing to the floor saved them. "Geez, big guy. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were having a panic attack."

Tank glared at him. "I don't have panic attacks, Santos!"

Hector, Binkie, Brown, and the other two men all took a step back, as if they were expecting the other two men to go at it.

Red stepped between the two. Turning to face Lester, she said, "If you get yourself all banged up while we're in paradise, I'm not going to be a happy camper."

Lester's gave her a boyish grin. "Don't worry, Red. I won't get myself banged up."

The sound of someone running in our direction was loud, and the men standing acted as one as they swung to cover the doorway, their hands on their weapons.

Lula came to a screeching stop as she got to the door and saw all the men looking her way, ready to draw their guns if necessary. Her eyes bugged out as she started flapping her arms like a chicken, screaming, "Help! Help! They gonna shoot me dead! Help!"

In her anxiety to get away from the men with guns, Lula darted to the left before switching to the right, then started wobbling as she tried to get her footing, but she was too unbalanced as the heel on her shoe broke, pitching her forward into the very men that she was so anxious to get away from. In the end, she took out all five of the men closest to the door when she fell on them. The only two who avoided being taken down were Tank and Red. Tank was far enough away to be out of the danger zone, and Red, when she'd moved in front of Lester to get between him and Tank, had unknowingly moved herself out of Lula's path.

Lula sat up, and although she was mostly on Lester, the other four men were tangled enough that they couldn't get free without dumping Lula on the floor. Seeing her predicament, she looked down with a scowl at the guys beneath her. "Don't nobody ever teach you boys no manners? You scared me outta ten years growth."

Hector muttered something that I was too far away to hear, but from the look on Lester's face, it was a good thing I wasn't in ear shot.

Red stepped forward, holding out her hand. "Here. Let me help you up."

Lula flounced a bit on the guys, drawing groans from them. "I dunno… I kinda like where I'm at."

Red's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, but where you're at is on _my_ man, and I don't put up with that shit."

Lula took her hand and made an effort to get up but only succeeded in pulling Red down on top of her.

I thought I knew every swear word known to man in several languages, but Red proved how inadequate my knowledge actually was.

Ranger stood, motioning to Tank as he did so, and the two of them plucked Red and Lula off the others without breaking a sweat.

The others had the opportunity to get themselves free and stand up. Lester maneuvered Red between him and Lula, making sure she stayed there by putting his hands on either side of her waist and holding her in front of him. Red turned, giving him a look, but she didn't say anything.

Lula was the one that drew everyone's attention when she asked, "So, who was the one that only got me one lame-ass breakfast sandwich? I thought I made myself clear when I wrote out the list of things to get that there'd need to be more than one."

Binkie surreptitiously moved so that he was as far away from her as he could possibly get before he responded, "I assumed you were ordering for all of us."

"Hell, no! Those was for me. If you wanted something, you should have ordered your own and not eaten mine."

Ranger interrupted to say, "I've arranged for a buffet to be delivered. It should be here any moment."

Lula's head swiveled, her gaze drilling into Ranger. "You got food coming? Let me at it. Where the hell is it? It better get here soon, or there won't be nothing left of me."

Lester's eyebrow shot up. "I don't think you have anything to worry about on that end."

Oh _shit_!

Lula in full rhino mode is something to see. I would swear that I actually saw the steam pouring out of her ears as she plopped her hands on her waist and looked at Lester like he was a bug that she was going to squash. "Are you calling me fat? 'Cause I'll have you know that this ain't no fat. I'm what's known as a big, beautiful woman. Just 'cause there's too much woman for you in this package in no way means that I'm fat." She took a couple of steps closer and said, "Just 'cause you a scrawny little man don't give you no call to be calling me fat!"

Lester raised his hands in the air, his face paler than I'd seen it as he said, "I apologize if I offended you. I in no way meant to imply anything of the sort."

She studied him for several seconds before nodding.

Red grinned as she leaned into Lester and said, "Looks like that mouth can get you into trouble in more ways than one," and then she winked before pulling his head down to hers and covering his mouth in a very intimate kiss.

Brown groaned and nudged Lester. "Hey, you two. Save that for private."

They reluctantly pulled apart.

Lula sniffed the air. "I smell bacon…and sausage—" she sniffed again "—and then there's waffles, and coffee, eggs, and…" Her nose wrinkled as she made a face. "What fool ordered smelly fish?"

Ranger lifted an eyebrow. "Would you rather I have them take everything back to the restaurant?"

"Hell no! I can put up with smelly fish as long as there's food to eat besides."

One of the two men I didn't know yet spoke up and said, "I'll get the door."

Ranger gave what passed for a nod and replied, "Thank you, Rodriguez."

While he went to get the door, Ranger lifted me so that he could carry me through to the dining room, where he set me down beside where he sat at the head of the table. The others took the remaining seats. The look of pain on Tank's face when Lula ended up beside him had me lifting my hand to cover the smile that escaped.

Ranger made the introductions while we waited for Rodriguez to come in with the food.

Watching the guys as we ate breakfast was comical. They bantered back and forth about things I had no idea what they were talking about. When the conversation came back to the stove that they'd dismantled in the kitchen, I couldn't stand it. I brought up the question that I didn't feel was adequately answered before. "Why didn't you use the bug sweeper?"

They all looked at me. Hector was grinning because he was the one to ask the question the first time.

Ranger chuckled. "It would seem that some of you need to retake the RangeMan basic training course if you can forget the fundamental rule."

Lester looked confused. "What rule is that, Ranger?"

"Always be aware of your surroundings."

It was apparent that they still had no clue what he was talking about. I decided to take pity on them and enlightened them. "There's a bug sweeper in the windowsill right next to where one of you put one of the burners. Hector told you that it wasn't one of his, so why didn't you just use it?"

Lester, Binkie, Tank, Rodriguez, and Rambo all looked as if they'd just been hit between the eyes with a two-by-four.

Tank said what I knew all of them were thinking. "Son of a bitch."

**Unknown POV**

I lowered the binoculars to the seat beside me before turning on the ignition. I knew he would ruin things. Why did he always have to try to step in and take things that I wanted? He'd been doing it all of our lives. My eyes narrowed as I thought about how I was going to get even. She was mine, and he would soon learn that he'd been wrong to try to use her for himself.

Checking to make sure the coast was clear, I pulled out into traffic and made the journey back to what I liked to refer to as my lair. A smile slipped onto my face as I pictured the look on her face when I brought her here.

The blare of a horn had me turning to see a car coming directly at me. Anger rose, and I acted. The car swerved to avoid me, and the driver seemed to lose control and slammed into a light pole. I smirked at their ineptitude as I moved into the other lane so that I could continue on my jaunt.

_Soon, Stephanie. Very soon, my love._


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**Stephanie's POV**

When Ranger had said he'd ordered a buffet, I'd had no idea he was talking about the elaborate spread that had been set out in the dining room. Of course, it made sense when he'd said to make sure there was enough for the guys who would be crashing there while the rest of them were taking over for the day shift.

It was at that point that I turned to him and asked, "What do you want Lula and I doing today?"

Ranger studied me for several minutes, and then his gaze moved to Lula before returning once again to me. "You need to stay off that foot, Babe." He looked at Lula. "Maybe Lula can look after you while the rest of us are gone. Of course, once the men eat, they'll need some quiet time so they can get some sleep."

My eyes widened as I whispered so that only he could hear, "You want me to put my life in Lula's hands?"

He winced. "On second thought…"

I bit my lip, something I was prone to doing when I was thinking, and asked, "Is there anything we can do to help you?"

He hesitated.

Then it hit me. "You don't have to go through everything, like files and things like that, do you?"

"Unfortunately, we have to go through all the computers, all the file cabinets, set up meetings with all the clients, as well as make sure the security systems monitoring their homes and businesses are top grade."

I nodded. "We can help you with that."

The look on Ranger's face before his blank look slammed down was priceless. I wasn't sure whether to be insulted or amused, so I decided humor had more going for it than outrage. I had to cover the lower half of my face in order to hide the smile that wouldn't go away. If I didn't know better, I'd say that he was looking for an excuse to turn down my offer. This was something that we were good at, though. It was what our business was going to be based on, after all. S&L Recovery was all about rebuilding a business from the ground up when tragedy struck. Lula might seem like a bumbling idiot, but there was a razor-sharp brain in there when it came to business. It was one area where she excelled.

I bit my lip once again as I decided whether or not to push the issue. Pursing my lips, I narrowed my eyes.

Ranger's eyes fixed on my lips, his gaze heating.

"Give us one day to prove ourselves."

Ranger let out a pent-up sigh. "Babe, it's not that I wouldn't trust you, but I saw what happened at the Everglades Safari Park. Now, I know none of that was your fault, but you have to admit your luck with the jobs you've been doing the past several days haven't turned out so well. My business here is already hurting. I don't want to deliver the death blow."

I lowered my eyes.

A low growl sounded.

I peeked up at him to see him run his hand over his face in frustration, the muscles in his jaw clenching. Suddenly, he stilled, his gaze zeroing in on me as a smile slowly spread over his sexy mouth. He leaned in so that he wouldn't be overheard. "All right, Babe. We'll play this your way. After all, I'm more inclined to scrap the whole thing than to try to save it, so your friend wouldn't be doing too much damage there. I do want the RangeMan name to recover, though."

I lifted my gaze to meet his. "So, you'll give us a chance?"

His look turned wry. "Do I have a choice?"

I grinned. Patting his hand, I said, "You won't be sorry."

Ranger let out a chuckle before lifting my hand to his mouth and kissing it. Heat zinged through me. Somehow the thought of eating seemed impossible at that moment, so I pushed my plate back to indicate that I was done.

He turned to the others and said, "Tank and I will head in first with Lula and Stephanie. Once Ram gets here with the first half of their team, the rest of you will join us so the second half can return here. The alarm system here has been totally overhauled, so I'll key you in on what you need to know."

Lester nodded. "Gotcha."

Lula had perked up at the mention of her name. She rubbed her hands together, and I knew her interest had been engaged. "Just let me go get changed, and I'll be right with you."

Ranger lifted an eyebrow at me. "Do you need to change too?"

I shook my head. "I work better in what I'm wearing."

The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. He stood and lifted me into his arms. "Then let's get going. We have a long day ahead of us."

I frowned. "Not that I mind being carried around by a hot-looking guy, mind you, but what happened to the crutches I was using yesterday?" I asked again.

Ranger turned to the room with a raised brow. "Who wants to tell her?"

All of the guys looked like they'd rather have their fingernails pulled out than to talk at that moment.

I looked up at Ranger, and his eyes narrowed on the men.

That must have been a sign that he was losing patience, because suddenly, Binkie was talking as if he had to get everything out in the next breath or life as he knew it would be over. "Well, see, it was like this. We were checking the stove over to make sure there weren't any other bugs, and one of the guys saw something shiny. Well, we needed to pry one of the panels off to check it, and the only thing we had that would work as a lever was the crutches. Of course, Lester tried to show off, and he broke the bottom of the crutch off, so we had to use the other one. That one Tank put too much pressure on it, and the thing splintered. Of course, we lucked out in that the panel had been pried off before it splintered."

I looked up at Ranger and said, "And you were worried about letting Lula and me loose on your business."

"Touché, Babe."

He carried me out to a nice, shiny, black Cayenne SUV and settled me in the front passenger seat. I frowned as I looked at the vehicle. "Uhm…wasn't this blown up?"

The look in his eyes was like a little boy on Christmas morning when he saw his most prized present. "I had a spare."

There was no time to question him any further because Lula and Tank emerged from the house.

Ranger glanced in their direction and then did a double take, then moved to take his place behind the wheel. His gaze was steady on me as we waited for the other two to join us in the vehicle. "Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

My eyes widened. "Not that I can think of."

Our gazes locked for several seconds, and not until the back passenger doors slammed did either of us look away. I took a quick peek in the back and saw that Tank looked even more surprised than Ranger had at Lula's new look. I'd grown used to her business look during our college days when we'd interned together.

It didn't take long to reach the heart of the city, and within just a few minutes of that, we were pulling into a garage. I was stunned at the number of shiny black vehicles parked in the garage. I looked to Ranger. "What, is this a secret new car lot or something?"

He turned and winked at me before returning his gaze to the area in front of us. There was one spot near the elevators, and he pulled into that slot before putting the SUV in park and turning off the ignition.

Without saying a word, the guys exited the vehicle. Lula and I glanced at each other, and she took a deep breath, then said, "It's time to root the rats out of the building."

That was her way of saying _let's get to work_.

Ranger opened my door and scooped me up into his arms once again. Not that I minded being so close to him, but being carried around was already old. I was an independent person, and it wasn't in my nature to allow someone to control so much of what I did.

The low rumbling of a chuckle had me looking up.

Ranger was looking right at me. "Don't worry. I'll be getting you a pair of crutches as soon as possible so you can have your independence."

I grimaced. "I have a habit of saying my thoughts out loud."

The corner of his mouth lifted. "I've noticed."

Tank and Lula joined us, and I noticed that Tank was giving Lula the once-over, as if he still didn't believe what he was seeing.

I knew the feeling. The first time I'd seen the change was when we did our practicum at Milly's Craft Barn, freshmen year at Rutgers.

Lula wasn't afraid to wear neon spandex clothes that defied the laws of physics with their stretch ability. Until today, that's the only way these guys had seen her dress. So the three-piece dark-maroon business suit—skirt, blouse, and blazer—was a drastic change from that.

The four of us entered the elevator, and Tank reached out to press the five button. As we ascended to our destination, I took note that there was a camera in the elevator, as well as a microphone to allow whoever was monitoring the cameras a front-row seat to anything going on or being discussed in here.

When the doors opened on the fifth floor, there was a hum of activity that told me the night crew had already made a start on cleaning out anything that didn't belong. My first thought had nothing to do with the activity going on. Instead, I was thinking that Grandma Mazur would be in the height of glory if she were here with all of these gorgeous guys.

The clearing of a voice and the fact that I felt the shaking of Ranger's chest—even though he wasn't making a sound—told me that once again I'd spoken out loud.

One of the men stepped forward. He had beautiful blue-gray eyes and wavy black hair. His gaze was directed at Ranger as he said, "All quiet, sir. There was one attempt at a coupe, but we were able to capture the perpetrators, and they're all in lockup."

Ranger gave a slight nod before switching the conversation to Chinese, and although I could pick up a few words, it was a hodge-podge that didn't allow me to piece the conversation together as the others followed his lead.

I followed as best I could. I understood the name Hector, something about some explosives, as well as a few other things. Another man joined the group and said something, flashing me a smile, but Ranger ignored him, continuing to speak to Ram. When Ranger mentioned a time in the middle of the night, my curiosity definitely perked up.

Ram came to attention and bowed his head slightly in a nod before saying something more in Chinese.

I frowned. Looking up at Ranger, I asked, "Why was there C4 in the building, and what are you going to be doing at two a.m.?"

Several pairs of eyes focused on me, and I fidgeted.

Ranger shook his head. "You never mentioned that you could speak Chinese, Babe."

I shook my head. "I can't speak a word of Chinese, but I am able to pick up a few words here and there."

His gaze slid to the others before he looked back down at me. "So, what exactly did you understand of our conversation?"

I lifted a shoulder. "Pretty much just what I said. There were a few other words, something about a package and the General waiting, but that's the extent of my knowledge of Chinese…well, except for several well-phrased swear words."

The man who'd just joined the group threw his head back and started laughing.

Some of the others were fidgeting as they rubbed their hands over their mouths. There were hints of smiles, but none of the men made eye contact with Ranger, although there were several assessing looks flicked in my direction.

Lula stepped forward and asked, "So, are we gonna spend the whole day out here just a lookin' at each other, or are you gonna show me to the head cheese's office so I can get to work?"

Ranger raised an eyebrow as he looked in her direction, then flicked his gaze to Tank. "Why don't you show her to Chan's office so she can get started?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at the look on Tank's face.

Tank turned to look at me with a glare. "I'll remember that, little girl."

Lula swung her hand, hitting Tank in the stomach as she said, "Don't you be flirting with her, big guy. You're mine, and don't you go forgetting it. Now lead on to this office."

I tried to stem my laughter as Tank's glare turned into a look of horror, but I lost it.

Several faces looked at me in awe, as if they'd never seen anyone laugh at Tank before. Ranger lifted me a little higher in his arms as he said, "Are you sure you want to laugh at Tank, Babe? He's been known to make grown men cry."

I tried to stop laughing, but every time I had myself mostly under control, I'd get a look at Tank's face and the laughter would come sneaking back. After several seconds, I got control enough to get out, "Need…to…get…away. His face…" and then the laughter took over.

Tears were streaming down my face from the laughter, but I was able to see Ranger's gaze go to Tank before we started moving away from the group. When Tank was no longer in my line of sight, I was able to take a breath and whisper, "Thank you."

Ranger smiled his thousand-watt smile as he carried me into an office and sat me down at the desk. "Okay. What do you need?"

I looked around the office. From what I could see, it didn't look like anyone had been using this room.

When I looked back at Ranger, he said, "This is the office I use whenever I'm in town."

That explained it. "And this office has been swept for bugs?"

"Yes, as well as the entire building."

"Did the men use the equipment here, or did you bring your own?"

"We brought our own."

I nodded. "All right. All of the equipment here needs to be gone over with a fine-tooth comb. I'll need to check out each of the computers before they're used. The first one would need to be the one that Lula will be using."

Ranger frowned. "So you won't be spending much time in the office, then."

"Not until we're sure that the equipment is good to go."

Ranger nodded. "Hector is the RangeMan electrical genius. I'll have him work with you to go over the computers and everything. As for the vehicles and weapons, I have experts that are already working on checking everything out."

"That's the best plan. I take it the men with you are the A team."

His eyes twinkled as a smile graced his handsome face. "Only part of the A team. There are still several members back at RangeMan Trenton."

My eyes widened in surprise. "RangeMan Trenton? As in New Jersey?"

He looked at me funny. "As far as I know, there's only one Trenton, New Jersey. And, yes, that's where my main headquarters is located."

I rolled my eyes as I let out a sigh.

He leaned in until his lips were a hairsbreadth from mine. "What was that for, Babe?"

"I grew up in the 'Burg. My family still live there."

Ranger's eyes widened. "You're _that_ Stephanie Plum!"

Giving him a cross-eyed look, I turned his own words back on him. "As far as I know, there is only one Stephanie Plum who grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. And I told you what my name was when we first met."

"What can I say? I didn't make the connection that you were the same woman who burned down the funeral home and was solely responsible for sending an entire inventory at a BMW dealership to car heaven when the car you drove onto the lot exploded." He paused, a twinkle entering his eyes as he added, "Although, in light of what's been happening the past several days, I should have known."

I grimaced before sending him a glare. "Very funny, Batman."

To click, or not to click, that was the question. After spending the morning going through every computer on the fifth floor with a fine-tooth comb, I was down to the last one before we moved to the medical floor so that we could check through all of the equipment there. It was going quite a bit faster than I'd anticipated because as soon as Hector had arrived, Ranger had sent him to help.

My finger hovered over the enter button.

I knew that I needed to hit the key, but the feeling in my stomach was telling me to trash this machine and find another one to set up in its place. The downside was that this was Chan's computer, and we needed the information in here so that we had a list of the clients as well as the companies that RangeMan was doing business with.

Pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I bit down as my finger lowered to the keyboard. I was touching the key without putting any pressure on it when I had an idea. If I could use a secured computer to go in the back door, then I could retrieve the information without putting the entire company's database at risk.

Hector looked up from the computer he was checking. We'd been working together well since both of us could converse in Spanish. _"You are done?"_

Shaking my head, I replied, _"I don't think we should boot up this one. I have a secure computer that I can use to go in the back door and get the information. It'll be safer."_

Hector's eyes widened. _"No! Not good. Alarms will be going off all over."_

"_No worries. I'll be in and out before the system even registers that I was there."_

Hector's gaze slid to the office where Ranger, Chan, and Tank had disappeared after Tank had come back from showing Lula to Chan's office. _"I don't know…"_

I let out a heavy sigh. _"There's no choice. I think the computer has been booby-trapped so that when it's booted up, it will crash, taking all the information vital to this business with it."_

He sighed, shaking his head. _"Okay. I help. You get on your secure computer, and I will use mine as a distraction."_

Grinning, I nodded to him before saying, _"Perfect!"_

Hector called Binkie and instructed him on how to find my computer. While we waited for him to get back, I helped Hector to make sure if his computer was taken out that it wouldn't take the rest of the computers on the floor out with it. We'd just finished when Binkie deposited my bag on a spare desk.

I slowly maneuvered myself over there with the crutches that Ranger had brought to me shortly after we'd arrived. I grimaced as I contemplated the chair. It was just like all the other chairs that I'd been sitting in this morning, and truth was, my ass was numb because of it. I turned to see if Hector was ready to get started, only to see that he'd disappeared.

Binkie grinned at me. "Hector will be right back."

My mouth opened to respond to him, when Hector came back into view pushing a plush black leather chair. When he stopped beside me and waved his hand at the chair to indicate I should use it, I smiled and kissed the teardrop under his eye. Once I'd straightened back up, the look of shock on Binkie's face caught my eye. I raised an eyebrow and waited to see if he would explain why he was so shocked, but he didn't say a word.

The fierce look on Hector's face probably had more to do with him staying silent than anything else, though.

I sat down in the chair, and it was like sinking onto a cloud. Letting out a sigh, I looked up at Hector and thanked him.

He just nodded and went back to his computer, and we got to work.

Fifteen minutes later, I'd managed to get into Chan's computer. Not bothering to check on Hector—I trusted him to do what he was supposed to—I continued following the path all the way to the protected files. My fingers hovered over the keys as the thought that this was too easy filtered into my brain. Scanning the screen, I searched for anything that might be a potential threat.

Hector started swearing, but instead of taking my eyes off the screen, I focused all of my attention onto what I was seeing. A sudden flash had me smiling as I followed its route back to the main command. It was like playing a video game, where there were several bags set out to deter me from following, because just as I got close to them, something would jump out of the bag and I'd have to deal with the threat. I'd just passed a white bag and nothing had happened. I hesitated for a fraction of a second before picking up the bag and taking it with me. When I got to the final destination, a hooded figure stood in shadow. There were two options. I tossed the white bag at the shadow's feet and typed in the words: _check mate_. The figure fell to the ground and the darkness disappeared, and all the information I needed was at my fingertips.

More swearing from Hector told me the game wasn't over. I had seconds in which to retrieve the information, or it would be lost forever. As quickly as I could, I put in a blank disc and hit the download button. I flicked a glance toward Chan's computer and noticed smoke spiraling in the air from where it was plugged in. Binkie was still in the room. He seemed to be frozen in place. The only thing moving was his eyes as they moved back and forth between Hector and myself. My gaze scanned the desk, and I quickly grabbed the paperweight and tossed it in his direction. I was a bit surprised when he caught the paperweight in midair, even though his gaze was on Hector in that moment.

He turned to me, as if wondering why I was throwing things at him.

"Unplug Chan's computer."

Without wasting any time, he moved to do my bidding.

The minute the juice was cut to the computer, the shadow figure on my computer rose up and removed the hood from his head. Shock had me reeling back. There on the screen, the image of Hitler was waving his fist in the air. A conversation bubble popped up with the words, "We will never surrender. You might have won this skirmish, but we will win the war."

Several images flashed on the screen before the signal flashed, indicating the download was complete. I uploaded the file, and my computer went to work making sure there was nothing harmful in the files. Three pictures flashed onto the screen. I frowned as I looked at the third one. Why was he there?

The sudden loss of light had me looking up to see that Ranger, Tank, and Chan had come to join us.

Chan looked like a little boy who'd lost his favorite toy. "Is that my computer?"

I looked at the slightly melted frame of his laptop before returning my gaze to the guys. I lifted a shoulder, saying, "We got all of the important files off it."

His look was wistful, as if he expected the thing to magically heal itself if he looked at it long enough. After several long seconds, he let out a sigh. "I guess it couldn't be helped. I just hate losing that computer. It was an original."

My gaze slid to the computer, and I frowned. "An original?"

Chan looked shocked. Shaking his head, he looked at Ranger.

Apparently, Ranger didn't have any better idea what the look was supposed to convey than I did. His answer was to raise his eyebrow and silently wait for Chan to explain.

In answer, Chan shook his head, and his eyes connected with mine as he went on to explain, "That's an original Grid Compass, like what was used on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985."

I looked at the computer once again. I wasn't buying it. "It looks more like the latest Lenovo W700ds laptop."

Chan grimaced. "That was just the body. Unfortunately, shortly after I got here, there was an incident and my computer was a casualty, but one of the guys knew a guy who refits old computers into newer computers."

Ranger's gaze zeroed in on Chan. "In light of why you came here, do you consider that a wise move?"

Pink tinged Chan's cheeks. "At the time, I had no reason to doubt him." Chan's gaze went once again to the melted shell. "I guess there won't be any fixing it this time."

I rolled my eyes. "You give up too easily. I can't do it right now because we still have a lot to get through, but I can see what I can do."

His surprised gaze met mine. "I'd be very grateful."

"Wait with that till we see what I can do." I turned to Ranger. "What I'd like to know is, when you came to the Everglade Park, who were you after?"

Ranger's gaze narrowed. "We caught the man we were after."

I gave a slow nod of my head before saying, "Yes, but who were you after? What's his name?"

He studied me for a few seconds before he said, "Taylor Hunt."

My eyes widened and my stomach felt like it was tied in knots as all the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Several thoughts raced through my mind as I struggled to find the key to why this was bothering me.

Ranger took a step forward, reaching out his hand to me. "What is it, Stephanie?"

I shook my head, not ready to voice my thoughts on this. Turning to my computer, I pulled up a screen and started typing.

Once I'd finished, Tank let out a whistle. He leaned forward, his eyes focused on the screen. "Son of a bitch! No wonder we haven't been able to track the bastard back to the source."

My gaze met Ranger's. "I thought it was odd that Tyler's beard had grown so fast in three days. Obviously, the man that we were dealing with was his twin, Taylor. That leaves the question of…where was Tyler?" I bit my lip as my thoughts went back to that day. It was like watching an old-time movie reel as the scenes from that day played through my mind. Then I had it! "Chandra made the comment that the only job worse than cleaning the snake swamp was working with Tyler. She made the comment that there was something freaky off about him and that Mary was never the same after spending a day with him. All Mary would say was that she'd rather take on the alligators than get near him again."

Ranger and Tank looked at each other, and something in their faces told me that something about what I'd just said had struck something in their own minds. They didn't say a word, but you could almost see the silent conversation going on between them. After several seconds, Ranger turned to me and asked, "How did you find that information, Babe?"

I gestured to my computer. "I used the search program I developed for the FBI."

A low whistle sounded, and I turned to see Hector grinning at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Apparently you understand more English than your friends give you credit for."

He winked. "Understand, yes. Speak, not so good."

I grinned. "By the time I get done with you, that won't be the case."

He raised a questioning eyebrow.

I laughed. "Welcome to English Immersion 101. Professor Plum is the name, teaching English is the game."

I waggled my eyebrows at him, and he threw his head back with laughter.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**Stephanie's POV**

Lula walked up behind Tank. She took up a stance and folded her arms across her chest before jutting her bottom lip out in a pout. "Am I the only one doing any work around here?"

Tank jumped.

It seemed that he wasn't aware of her approach and she'd startled him. Hector, Binkie, and Chan were all laughing, and even Ranger let the corner of his mouth lift in a semblance of a smile.

Tank glared at the men before turning to Lula and saying, "Damn, woman. Make some noise instead of sneaking up on people."

Lula's eyes grew round. "Me? Sneaking up on people? If that ain't the pot calling the kettle white." She looked around at the rest of us, stopping when her gaze met mine. "I'm hungry. Let's go get some lunch, Steph." She glared at Tank before continuing, "Not that you been working hard enough to stop and take a break, but I guess someone has to come along and keep Ranger company while Steph and I talk over lunch."

The expression on his face had everyone laughing. He wheeled around with a fierce glare on his face. "One more guffaw out of any of you, and I'll be meeting you on the mats in the gym."

I sent him a finger wave. "I don't think I'd be much competition right now, big guy."

His eyes widened in horror. "I didn't mean you, little girl. I'd never hurt a woman."

Something about the look in his eyes had me wanting to jump up, wrap him in my arms, and tell him everything would be okay. I had the feeling that someone had done a real number on him at some point in his past. It made me mad because I suspected it had caused more damage than was initially intended. My eyes met his, and I lifted my chin. "I would never think otherwise."

He seemed a bit surprised at that but just gave a nod.

Ranger stepped forward and lifted me into his arms. "If we're going to lunch, let's get to it so we can get back to business."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and batted my eyes at him as I placed the back of my hand to my forehead. "I do declare, if I don't get something to eat right this minute, kind sir, I'll just faint right away."

His lips twitched, and without looking at me, he strode toward the elevator as he said, "Brat."

A giggled escaped.

He lifted me higher in his arms as he waited for the others to join us.

When only Lula and Tank followed us, I looked up at Ranger to ask, "Aren't the others going to join us?"

"No."

I rolled my eyes before commenting, "That was short and sweet."

He chuckled, but there was no further comment.

We took the Cayenne. Ranger sat me in the front with him, and Tank got in the back with Lula. It was when Ranger climbed out of the SUV that I realized my crutches were back at the office. I made a face as the passenger door was opened and Ranger once again lifted me in his arms.

Lula hit Tank with her hand as she nodded her head in our direction. "You need to be taking notes on the proper way to treat a lady. I don't see you carrying me around."

Tank mumbled something under his breath, but I was too far away to hear what it was.

I felt eyes on me as we entered the building, and even though many of the diners had turned in our direction and were looking at us, I got the feeling that the person I was specifically feeling was in hiding somehow. It didn't make sense, but I decided to think about that later.

The restaurant was one of the nicer ones in Miami, but their exorbitant costs ensured that Lula and I had never been inside before. A maître d' looked us over, his expression less than thrilled as he eyed Lula and me. Showing why he was employed by one of the top restaurants, he then seated us. There was only a slight hiccup as he first tried to seat us at the table directly in front of the French doors. When Ranger vetoed that spot, we were taken instead to a table where Ranger was able to take the seat that afforded him a view of the entire restaurant, including the exits.

Lula shuddered as the man walked away. Leaning forward, she said, "This place gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"I'm not overly fond of it myself." I turned to Ranger. "I had the feeling like we were being watched." I scanned the room as, once again, that same feeling hit me. When nothing jumped out at me as to why I might be feeling this way, I continued, "It's like whoever is watching is hiding."

Both of the guys scanned the restaurant.

Ranger texted someone and then picked up his menu. "Make sure you order several dishes, ladies. We'll be here a while."

Lula grinned. "Now you're speaking my language."

The waiter arrived a couple of minutes later—a young man in his early twenties who was rather handsome. He didn't fit the job that he was doing, though. I studied him as he took our order. He was very polite, especially toward Lula and myself, and his behavior changed when Ranger was speaking. He stood taller, as if he were standing at attention. That's when it hit me. He was more like Ranger and his men than any waiter I'd ever met. My eyes went to his name tag, and I read the name that was there—Dante.

I felt eyes on me again and looked up to see that Dante was watching me.

I grinned and gave him my order. He bowed slightly and said, "Very good. I'll just put your order in and get your salads and soups." And with that he moved off.

Ranger's hand covered mine, and I turned to face him. He asked, "What's going on in that brain of yours?"

I lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "I was just contemplating that Dante doesn't fit in with the job he's doing. He seems more the type to be working for you."

For a split second, there was an odd look on Ranger's face before it was masked.

It was quiet for several minutes while we waited for our orders to arrive.

We'd been waiting nearly ten minutes when Lula started fidgeting. "I'm hungry. Where's our food?"

I looked around. There was a lot of activity going on for what few diners were in the place. Dante was exiting from the kitchen, and his gaze swung in our direction as he headed toward us with a tray full of food.

"I think I see our waiter headed this way now."

"It's 'bout time they be bringing our food."

Sure enough, Dante stopped at the table and started unloading the dishes on the tray to the table before bowing and moving away once again.

Lula dug in to the food set before her. The rest of us followed suit at a much more mundane pace. I asked her, "What did you find out while looking over the books this morning?"

She finished chewing what was in her mouth, then swallowed before answering. "I found that whoever was keeping the books was doing more than putting numbers down on paper. I'd say that the company is shy close to a quarter of a million dollars."

A muscle clenching in Ranger's jaw was his only reaction, whereas Tank swore softly.

I asked the question that I was sure both of them were wondering. "Will you be able to trace it back to who took it?"

A smile lit up her face. "Already done. Although the trail was supposed to stop at Chan so you'd think he was the one that done it, I was able to trace the cover-up trail to the real thief. Someone with the name of Gunner. I'll have all of the particulars for you when we get back to the office so you can do that thing you do with the computers."

"I'll look forward to stripping him of his ill-gotten gains."

Ranger asked, "And how will you do that?"

"The same way that I'm getting even with Rangoonie. Don't worry… It's all legal."

Ranger's hand caressed mine. "I had no doubt that it was. However, I deal in the gray area of the law a lot more often than not. So even if it wasn't technically legal, I wouldn't rule it out without considering its merits."

Placing my hand more firmly in his, I said, "Good to know."

Lunch took two hours from the time we arrived at the restaurant until Ranger paid the bill. We were stalling, but I had no idea why. At least, not until Lester walked into the dining room and stopped at the maître d' stand just inside the entryway. That's when Ranger took out several bills and laid them on the table before scooting his chair back from the table and standing.

I got a cold chill when Tank stood at the same exact moment as Ranger.

While Ranger pulled my chair back for me so he could once again lift me into his arms, Tank performed the same action for Lula, minus the lifting her in his arms bit.

As we made our way toward the exit, I once again felt eyes following me. I snuggled closer to Ranger, and his head lowered slightly as he asked, "What is it, Babe?"

A shudder raced through me, and I placed a hand over my stomach. It felt like there was a whole troupe of acrobats in there doing somersaults. Shaking my head before leaning it against his arm, I said, "I feel like I'm being watched again."

He hesitated. "There is a whole team with Lester. They've scoured the area, but there's nothing out of the ordinary. You're safe, Stephanie. If there_ is_ someone out there, I'm not letting them near you."

When we reached Lester, he tapped his ear and said, "We're coming out."

As he turned, I saw the earwig he was wearing. His hand was on his weapon, ready to draw it at any time as we exited the building. Lester took up a position in front of Ranger and me as Tank put a protective hand on Lula's back. The five of us moved quickly toward a black SUV sitting in the loading zone.

I glanced up at Ranger, but his gaze was scanning the area around us. I began taking in the scenery as well. A flash caught my attention, and I turned my gaze in that direction. There was a slight movement and then the flash again, as if someone was sighting a target. My body tensed.

Whether Ranger noticed the same thing I had or the tensing of my body sent him into warrior mode, I didn't know, but suddenly all weapons were out and we were moving at a running pace. The back door of the SUV opened, and Ranger dove in, taking me with him. Tank and Lula hurried in on the other side, and Lester took the front passenger seat. I recognized Rodriguez in the driver's seat as a shot rang out. It hit the vehicle and bounced off as Rodriguez peeled out of the parking lot.

More shots hit the vehicle until we were out of range. My heart was racing, and all I could think about was how wonderful Ranger smelled as he hovered over me, protecting me from some unknown psychopath.

The trip to the restaurant had taken nearly three times longer than the trip back to RangeMan. From what it felt like, I doubt that we were anywhere close to the speed limit. Not until the vehicle had come to a stop in the RangeMan garage were we allowed up. Of course, once I was able to sit up, I had the problem of not being able to. I looked at Ranger, who was standing outside the vehicle waiting for me to get up. Pushing back my hair, I said, "I'm stuck."

A muffled voice from beneath me said, "Well, don't expect me to help you get unstuck, 'cause I'm having difficulties myself."

The corner of Ranger's mouth twitched before he leaned in and freed me from the area between the space between the backseat and the back of the front seat. I winced with pain, as it was past time for me to take a pain pill, but I hated the foggy feeling I got when I took them.

Ranger put a finger under my chin and raised my head till we were looking at each other. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I just skipped the last pain med."

He pulled out his phone, and after a slight pause, he said, "Brown. Meet us on five." After replacing his phone, he gently lifted me in his arms and carried me toward the elevator. "Skipping your meds isn't recommended, Babe."

"I don't like how they make me feel."

Although he didn't stop moving, his eyes found mine as he asked, "And how's that?"

"Like everything's fuzzy and I don't have any control over anything that's going on."

He didn't say anything, but his gaze remained fixed on mine as we rode the elevator up to the fifth floor. Once the doors were opened, he carried me back to the office he'd put me in when we first arrived.

Ranger was setting me in the chair when the medic walked in. He looked over his shoulder and said, "What do you have for pain meds, Bobby? She skipped her last dose because they make her fuzzy. Maybe something that isn't so strong?"

Bobby eyed me, as if he was sizing up how much I might weigh. "We know that she can't take Vicodin, and if the pills I gave her to replace them are too strong, then there's only one other option that would work." He set his bag on the desk and rooted around inside before pulling out a pill vile. He shook one out and handed it to me. "Take this. They aren't as strong as the last pain med, but they'll relieve the pain."

Grimacing, I reached out to accept it, asking, "What is it?"

"Ultram."

Ranger went to the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, twisting off the cap before handing it to me.

I swallowed the pill and closed my eyes as I leaned my head back against the chair.

Ranger squatted down so he was closer to my eye level. "Why don't you lie down for a while, Stephanie?"

I shook my head. "I'll be fine in a minute."

His hand rested on my forearm. "Everything will still be here once you've rested. Besides, the medical floor isn't ready for you to do your thing yet. They still have a couple of hours' worth of work to do, making sure the machines are all salvageable."

"Yeah, about that, boss. It might be better to scrap it all and get new. We've already racked up three injuries trying to salvage what little we have."

It was hard to force my eyelids open. The pain med might be light-strength, but on top of the morning we'd already had, plus the natural adrenaline crash from the excitement on leaving the restaurant, I was having a hard time staying awake. The pain had magically disappeared, at least for now.

I frowned, trying to focus on the conversation going on. "Scrap the medical equipment. There is too much that they could have done to sabotage it. I can get you a deal with Akron Medical Supply to restock whatever you need."

Bobby's eyes were wide. His mouth was open, but there was nothing coming out.

Tank slapped him on the back and said, "Suck it up, Brown. You got something to say, say it already."

Bobby shook his head. "Akron Medical won't even let us in the door. When we were setting the Miami office up, we had to go to Mellow because Akron couldn't be bothered."

Reluctantly, I sat forward in the chair and dug my phone out of my bag on the desk. After searching through the contacts, I found the one I needed and connected the call.

"Akron Medical Supply Company. This is Penelope Stillwater. How may I help you?"

"Hi, Penelope. This is Stephanie Plum calling. I need to order some medical equipment for a business that I'm rebuilding."

"Why, of course. Do you have a list of what you need?"

"Not at the moment. There was a question about whether or not you'd be willing to fill the order."

There was a pause, and then in a hushed voice, she sighed and said, "Well, Mr. Dillard doesn't like working with colored people. If I say anything, he's threatened to fire me, and you know how much I need this job. But you have nothing to worry about on that score."

I glanced briefly at the guys before I asked, "Would it be possible to talk with Mr. Akron?"

"Sure. You are on the preferred caller list, after all. Hold, please."

Almost instantly, a deep male voice came over the line. "Stephanie! How's my favorite girl doing?"

"Well, not as well as I'd like, Uncle Terry. I called to see about getting some medical equipment for a company I'm rebuilding, but I was told that Mr. Dillard doesn't like working with _colored _people." I told him, putting emphasis on the word colored to show my displeasure with the way Dillard was doing business.

A low growl sounded on the other end of the line. "Don't worry, princess. You get me that list, and I'll make sure it's filled. I don't care about the color of a man's skin."

"I didn't think you'd be party to that. I'll have the list for you in the morning, if that's okay."

"You bet. Any chance of you bringing it by personally?"

"I'd like that Uncle Terry, but there was an incident a bit ago, and until I have a better handle on it, my trips about town will be limited. Of course, if you wanted to deliver the goods yourself, I can arrange for lunch to be brought in."

"What kind of incident?"

"Not to worry. I'm in good hands."

"Tell me now, peanut, or I'm calling your daddy."

_Shit!_

Letting out a sigh, I said, "I'm working with the owner of RangeMan Security. There were some issues with their Miami office, and I'm helping them to straighten things out."

"Ranger Manoso? Is that who you're working with?"

My gaze lifted to Ranger for a second before I replied, "Yes."

"Good man. All right. You tell Ranger that General Akron will hold him personally responsible for your safety."

I rolled my eyes.

There was a chuckle from the other end, as if he knew my reaction without even having seen it. "You tell him."

"Yes, sir. I have to go now. I'll get that list for you, though."

"You do that."

The phone disconnected, and I pulled it away from my ear and glared at it. After putting it back in my bag, I looked up at Ranger and said, "Your reputation precedes you. I was told to tell you that General Akron is holding you personally responsible for my safety."

One eyebrow went up. "General Terrance Akron?"

I nodded.

The corner of Ranger's mouth lifted. "Duly noted. And is the general going to be joining us for lunch sometime soon?"

"He didn't say, but it's a possibility."

Tank shuddered. "We'd better get this place shipshape just in case. From what I've heard, he doesn't mince his words."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**Stephanie's POV**

My eyes fluttered, and the first thing I thought was that somehow, Ranger had gotten his way and I did indeed take a nap. Lifting my wrist so that I could check for the time, I was astonished to see that it was closing on four p.m. Struggling to sit up, I swung my feet to the floor and looked around for the crutches. They were nowhere in sight, and I was left to wonder if it hadn't been intentional that someone had moved them where I wouldn't be able to get to them.

The slow opening of the door had me tensing for a moment until I realized that with Ranger in the building, the chances of a bad guy getting this close to me wouldn't be good. At that moment, the very man that I was thinking about stepped into the room with the very thing that I was looking for.

"How are you feeling, Babe?"

"Better."

He grinned. "You were out before we left the room."

I held out my hand, and he handed me the crutches. I went to stand without putting any pressure on my foot. It wasn't hurting right now, and I didn't want to change that.

Ranger quickly moved closer and helped me up, making sure I was steady before his hands left my waist.

"Thanks. Where's Hector? He's probably wondering where I got to."

Ranger's eyebrow went up. "You didn't notice the lack of noise while you were sleeping?"

I lifted a puzzled gaze to him.

His hand rested on the small of my back as he said, "Come on. I'll show you."

Using crutches wasn't all it's cracked up to be. Yes, they helped you to be mobile, but they also hurt the armpits if the crutches weren't fitted just perfectly. The key was not to have them directly under the armpit, but these were flush against mine, due to the fact the crutches were too tall. My shoulders were at an awkward angle to accommodate them, and they were farther out from my body for my comfort. I had a feeling I was going to fall at any moment.

After taking just a few steps, I was suddenly lifted into Ranger's powerful arms. I looked around in surprise, my mouth opening to ask a question. His mouth swooped down to cover mine as he gave me a kiss that woke me up in ways that hadn't been awake in months. Not since my breakup with Dickie Orr, the man who I'd thought I'd be marrying until I surprised him one night by going to his apartment. I was the one who'd been surprised when I caught him in bed with my arch nemesis, Joyce Barnhardt. I'd left the ring on the table as I left. Apparently he'd gotten the message, because he never did try to call me. Last I knew, the two of them were off planning their own wedding. Of course, I should have known the rat was no good to begin with because of what had happened on my first day of kindergarten.

Ranger's kiss was nothing like Dickie's kisses. Ranger's kisses were magic.

When we came up for air, I had no idea what I'd been going to say, or even if I'd been planning to say anything. Our eyes connected, and there was a heat in his that drew me in. He lowered his head, and just as I thought he was going to kiss me again, a light knock sounded on the door and it opened even more.

Hector gave Ranger a fierce look as he asked, "What happened?"

Ranger shook his head. "The crutches looked awkward. I think they're set wrong for her."

Hector took the crutches, placing the rubber ends on the floor. He studied them for a moment before nodding. "I fix." With that, he left the room.

Ranger carried me onto the floor. It looked just the same as it had when we'd returned earlier. Well, almost. It looked like one of the cubicles was being used, but at the moment, no one was there.

A creak of a door being opened had me looking to one side. Lester was peeking his head out the door. His voice was barely a whisper as he asked, "Is it safe to come out now?"

A low growl as Hector returned had Lester's eyes going wide, and he quickly shut the door without making a sound.

I gave Ranger a puzzled look.

The corner of his mouth lifted. "When I came out and told the guys to keep it down because you were resting, Hector took it to heart and made anyone who made noise go into the soundproof conference room."

My eyes widened. "How many are in there?"

His eyes twinkled. "There are two guys on monitors, Tank and Chan are with Lula in Chan's office, and the rest of the men are in there. Bobby made the mistake of trying to check on you an hour ago."

My lips started twitching. "So how did you avoid getting put in there?"

He winked at me. "I was taking you the crutches so that if you woke up, you'd be able to get around. Hector knows how silently I can move."

Hector handed me the crutches, a big grin on his face. "They fit you now."

Ranger set me down, making sure I was steady on my good foot as I took the crutches and tried them out. They were indeed perfectly sized this time.

I grinned at Hector. "You're a miracle worker. Thank you."

He bowed. When he stood back up, there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "For you, anything."

"So, what have you been up to while I was—" I looked up at Ranger before continuing, "—resting?"

Hector threw back his head and let out a deep belly laugh. "You not resting. You sound asleep, _chica._"

A sigh escaped. "Well, someone could have woken me up."

He shook his head. "Not if they know what's good for them. You needed rest. Rest you got."

Just then the stairwell door slammed open and a red-haired cyclone whirled onto the floor. "Santos! Where the bloody hell are you? I've been cooling my heels for almost two hours while you've been goldbricking."

It was right at that moment that Lester was walking out of the conference room with the rest of the guys. He stopped in his tracks at Red's words. "Ah, honey, I wasn't goldbricking. Honest. Hector had me locked in the conference room with some of the other guys and refused to let us out."

Red turned to Hector, her hands on her hips and a glare that would rival some of the best I'd seen in the 'Burg on her face. "Why'd you lock Lester in the conference room? And it better be good, or you and I are going to go a few rounds."

Hector didn't even seem to be phased by her attitude or words. He tilted his head in my direction and then said, "Ranger said that _Estefanía _needed rest." His hand waved in Lester's direction before he added, "This one came up here singing a bawdy song, and I didn't want him to wake her up, so I told him to go in there and chill his heels."

Her gaze swiveled to encompass me, and there was a softening there before she turned to Lester. "You didn't tell me that. Apologize so Hector will let you come play."

Lester's cheeks turned a ruddy color, and he moved from foot to foot. He leaned down to whisper something in Red's ear that had her eyes glazing over, but I was out of earshot. She swayed, and his hand went out to steady her. Once he was sure she wouldn't fall, he turned to Hector and said, "I humbly apologize for singing such a song in close proximity of a lady. Please accept my sincere…"

Red backhanded him, hitting his gut.

It was a playful hit, but Lester acted like he was mortally wounded. It was such a comical, over-the-top reaction that everyone was laughing.

Red reached up and grabbed a fistful of Lester's T-shirt, causing it to rise up in the back, and as she led him away, the lower half of some kind of bird was visible on his back. The intricate detail was a work of art, and from the scope of what was visible, the dimensions of the bird would probably take up the majority of his back, if not all of it.

Ranger leaned down and whispered, "What has you so fascinated, Babe?"

I looked up. "I was just noticing the art in the ink on his back."

His eyebrow lifted. "Do I need to be jealous?"

I grinned up at him. "No way. Don't get me wrong… He's handsome and I'm guessing he has a great sense of humor among a list of other wonderful attributes, but the most he could be is a good friend."

"Probably a good thing. Red would tear you limb from limb if she thought you were after her man."

I laughed. "She seems fun. I'd like to get to know her."

"Well, she'll be around for some time, so you just might get your wish."

I reached up to touch his jaw and let my hand rest there. "That's not the only wish I have."

His eyes heated. "We'll have to see what we can do about making those other wishes come true."

"Good to know."

It was after six when the other team came in to take our place. Since we already had access to the house, there was no need to work it in shifts this time around. Ranger held a meeting with all of the men before we left. He let them in on everything we'd found, as well as what had been cleared and what still had to be done. Once he'd dismissed everyone, Hector and Rodriguez were dispatched to pick up a food order that was placed at Marty's, and the rest of us headed to the house.

When we got down to the garage, Ranger surprised me by not heading for the Cayenne, but instead he led me to a black Porsche 911 Turbo. After opening the passenger door for me, he half turned and tossed the keys for the SUV in Tank's direction.

Tank plucked the keys from the air without even looking.

Once I was situated, Ranger moved to take his seat behind the wheel, and we peeled out of the garage like the hounds of the Baskervilles were on our heels. It was weird seeing all of the black SUVs following us as we headed back to Ranger's house. There were three vehicles behind us, and we looked like a caravan headed down the street. As soon as Hector and Rodriguez picked up the food, they would join us as well.

Ranger pulled into the garage, and he'd managed to help me out of the car and we'd gotten to the back door when the others started pulling in. I covered the keypad so that no one would be able to see the code that I was putting in—although select members had been given the code, I didn't want to take a chance that some unknown person would be watching—and when the buzz sounded, Ranger opened the door.

When I went to enter, he put a hand out to stop me.

He put a finger to his lips as he pulled his weapon with the other hand. He motioned to Tank, and the two of them went in. They were back in less than five minutes, and Ranger gave the all-clear.

The others headed into the den, and although I started in that direction, I detoured to the office to check on the programs I had running on Rangoonie first. It didn't take long to boot up the computer. The first two programs had no results, but when I opened the third, I hit the jackpot. There were photographs of Rangoonie making a deal with someone. I got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. There was something about the man shaking hands with Rangoonie… My eyes narrowed, as if that would magically make it easier to know who the man was.

I felt the tingle at the back of my neck and looked up, knowing that Ranger was near. He was leaning against the door with his arms folded. Although he looked relaxed, I had the feeling that he was anything but.

"Hector and Rodriguez are back with dinner."

"Okay. Just let me start the search-recognition program running so I can find out who this is."

He straightened, letting his arms drop to his side as he walked over so he was standing behind me. "Who?"

I pulled up a close-up of the two men and pointed to the man I was talking about.

He stiffened as an expletive left his mouth.

I looked up, and the expression on his face was a bit frightening, although I knew I had nothing to fear from him. "What's wrong?"

His gaze swung to me. "It looks like you and I need to have a talk about what you're investigating, Babe."

Tilting my head, I replied, "I told you that I have some things in the works regarding Vinnie Rangoonie."

He nodded. "And now you're going to tell me exactly what that entails."

"Who is that man?"

Our eyes met. "That's the bastard who tried to destroy my company."

_Shit!_

My stomach had felt like it was tied in knots before I found out who the man was, but now I felt like I'd touched a live wire and all the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. This was the third time in my life that I'd felt like this, and neither of the other instances had ended well. My gaze returned to the screen as my hands hovered over the keyboard. "I need a name."

Ranger supplied it, and my hands flew over the keys as I set things in motion. Once I was done, I locked the computer in search mode so that no one would be able to get in unless they had the password. Although I'd only known Ranger a short time, I trusted him with my life. I couldn't explain why I felt the need for secrecy, but my instincts had been dead on so far, and I wasn't going to change things up now.

And then there were the letters that I'd been finding since the third day Lula and I had started living here. About trusting no one and watching our backs. I scooted back as I pulled open the drawer and took the letters out. I handed them to Ranger.

His eyebrow lifted.

"You might know who wrote them."

His eyes hardened. "How long have you been getting these?"

"The first one had been slid under the front door when we got up on the third day. The others have been in various places, and they come every other day. I checked all of the security tapes, and I even hacked into the feed to try to catch who it was, but they're smart. They know more about that aspect of surveillance than I do."

His hands clenched. "Can you remember exact days and times?"

My shoulder lifted. "I put the dates and times on the back of the envelopes."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you've had experience with stalkers before."

My cheeks heated.

His eyes narrowed. "You've had a stalker?"

"Just a few."

"A few?"

"Well, I haven't really been counting."

"Shit, Stephanie. Just who the hell are you?"

I grinned at the look of surprise on his face. "I already told you who I am. Stephanie Plum. And you obviously know something about my life in Trenton, since you asked if I was that Stephanie."

He pulled me up so I was standing in front of him. "Normally, I would have had Rodriguez do a background check on you. We've been kind of busy since we arrived, though. Besides…I wanted to find out from you who you are."

"I appreciate that."

His hand cupped my jaw as our gazes met. Just as he started to lower his head, a knock sounded on the door.

Binkie was standing there, his face a ruddy hue, and he was looking everywhere but at the two of us. "Dinner's here. Thought you'd like to know."

Ranger's arm moved around my shoulders as he said, "Dismissed."

My stomach let loose with a growl, and a muffled laugh came from Binkie as he faded into the background.

A wry smile appeared on Ranger's face as he handed me my crutches. "Let's go feed the beast, Babe."

Accepting the crutches, I slowly made my way to the dining room, where the others were already waiting for us. My mouth watered as I looked at all of the selections. Obviously the theme for tonight was Mexican, as there were tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, burritos, rice, beans, chips, guacamole, and a few other dishes that looked interesting. My eyes widened at the enormous quantity of food on the table. I looked around at the others at the table, and although I knew they probably had good appetites, I didn't see how we would ever be able to eat all of the food they'd brought.

Conversation at the table steered away from work. I had to bite my tongue a couple of times to stop myself from laughing at something Red said. She seemed like a take-no-prisoners kind of girl, and I had to admit, I liked her attitude and the confident way she carried herself. I had the strange feeling that all of the guys were sizing up Lula and me. Although, I'm not sure why that would surprise me, because in the same vein, I guess you could say that we were sizing them up as well.

When the meal was over, everyone moved to other parts of the house, whether it was the den, their rooms, or whatever. I headed back to my computer. I felt Ranger's presence instantly and knew that he was following me. There were two chairs in the room, and I took the more comfortable one that I'd been using.

Ranger pulled the other chair up beside me, and I unlocked the diagnostic so I could see what was going on. A gasp escaped me as I took a look at the images and information on the screen.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**Ranger's POV**

Once I'd seen the picture, I had Stephanie walk me through everything that she'd done since gaining access to my home. This time, I had her go over every minute detail instead of just giving me a general version like she had when we first arrived. I learned very quickly that she was a genius. Not just in the scope of her plan, but also in all the aspects she needed in order to pull this together. That she was smart was a given—there weren't many people who had the ability to break in here, let alone avoid detection from the secondary alert I'd set up that went directly to Hector in the Trenton office—but her genius went light-years beyond intelligent.

When I'd gotten the report that said movement was detected here, the matter wasn't considered high priority because the secondary alert hadn't been tripped. Also, Chan had reported that all was well when he'd sent someone to check it out. Not until I'd received the anonymous call telling me that all wasn't as it appeared in Miami did I even give the matter another thought. In light of what had transpired since our arrival, I was left wondering if they were referring to the two women in my home or the train wreck that was trying to derail my business.

The report in front of me detailed Gunner's entire life. He came from a privileged background, and on the surface, there was nothing in there that would explain his extreme hatred for anyone of color. If there was a trigger, I wasn't seeing it.

Stephanie's hands hovered over the keyboard as she frowned at the screen. Suddenly, her fingers started flying over the keys as she imputed data, and another screen popped up. _Son of a bitch! _Now everything made sense in some twisted way.

I looked at Stephanie. "Now that you have the information, what's your plan?"

She bit her lip, and I had to restrain myself not to bend down and take her mouth with mine, letting my tongue salve her poor damaged bottom lip.

Her eyes lifted to meet mine. "I've set up a dummy corporation that's been in contact with Rangoonie. He's been offered a deal too good to pass up. In order for him to try to scam the CEO, he's going to have to deposit the money we've specified. Once he does that, everything will disappear, and whoever is behind Rangoonie's operation will come after him."

I shook my head. "I don't think you took Alexander into account. I can't see him letting his nephew go down without at least trying to help him."

She grabbed her bag and started digging through the contents. When her hand came out, she was clutching a business card and her cell phone. I watched as she punched in the number, waiting to see what kind of plan she was hatching now.

While she waited for the call to be answered, she twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

I winced when she sat forward in a hurry, causing her to pull the lock that she'd been playing with.

"Hi, uhm…this is Stephanie. We met the other day at the wedding reception."

She paused, and the pink tinge of color gracing her cheeks had me curious. I half leaned, half sat against the desk with my arms folded across my chest as I listened to the conversation.

"Uhm…" She looked up at me before her gaze shifted away. She turned her chair so that she wasn't facing me as she replied, "Uh, no, no, the answer hasn't changed." She fidgeted in the chair. "No, I'm sure I can't marry you. I appreciate the offer, though." She shifted once again before straightening up and saying, "Well, see, I just wanted to talk to you about something that's in the works. I hope you won't get mad or anything. When I started, I didn't even know you, and now that I do know you're related, well, for one thing, I can't believe it. I mean, you're so nice, and he's such a scum-sucking bastard." She paused. Her mouth dropped open as her eyes widened. "Well, yeah." She started nodding, even though the man on the other side had no idea that's what she was doing. Then she said, "Oh! Really?" Again, she started nodding. Another blush stained her cheeks, and then she started chuckling. "All right. Thank you, Alexander."

One eyebrow rose as I watched her disconnect the call.

She seemed lost in thought, and I figured that the only way I was going to find out what went on was to ask. I'd no more than opened my mouth when she swiveled the chair so she was looking at me.

"He didn't seem surprised."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "That's all I get? He didn't seem surprised?"

Her beautiful face lit up. "He told me to do what I wanted, that he won't stand in my way. He also said that if his nephew somehow manages to come out of this with his skin intact, he'll personally make sure the little weasel never has another dime to his name."

"Alexander isn't someone you want to cross."

She nodded. "He also guessed that Vinnie has been scamming money from him as well."

I whistled. "So will this speed up your plan?"

"No. I need to move slowly so I don't spook him."

She grimaced, and I lost no time in scooping her up in my arms. "It's time for you to rest. You've been on that foot nearly non-stop, and it needs a break."

When her mouth opened as if to argue the point, I swooped in and covered her mouth with mine. The need for air forced us to end the kiss much too soon. A knock on the door had me laying my forehead against hers as I said, "I'm going to have to have a talk with my men about their timing."

She chuckled, and her face lit up with a smile as she said, "I have a stun gun we can use."

I set her on her feet, and then, giving her forehead a quick kiss, I said, "Why don't you go put your feet up? I'm sure you've found the entertainment system in the master suite. Go take advantage of it."

She leaned her head into me as a yawn escaped her. "I am kind of tired."

My hand went to her jaw. I wanted to pick her up again and join her on that bed, but the clearing of a throat told me that I would have no peace until I dealt with whatever matter had come up while Stephanie and I had been in the office.

I turned, my eyes narrowing on Rambo as I moved to join him.

His face paled slightly and his eyes darted around, as if he were looking for a place to hide.

A smile slipped into place. Not the same smile I showed to Stephanie or my family; no, this was the shark smile that my enemies would see before their lights went out.

**Stephanie's POV**

I made sure the computer was locked down and then made my way to my room. It was a bit early for bed, but after the day we'd had, I was exhausted. After answering Mother Nature's call, I climbed into bed and closed my eyes. My mind refused to shut down, though. I tried for a good twenty minutes, but it was no use. So I pulled myself into a sitting position and grabbed the book from the nightstand. This was the same book that I'd been reading the night Ranger and Tank had shown up, and it didn't take me long before I was totally immersed in the story I was reading—_A Stalker in the House_.

I was nearly at the end of the book as I read…

_My heart beat wildly as I felt danger approaching. I'd been going over and over the evidence in my mind, and I was positive that my stalker was a woman. The FBI insisted that women didn't act in this way when they stalked their victims, and instead, they had told the police that the person they were looking for was a man in his early to mid-thirties. They had gone on to say that he was used to leading and was probably ex-military or law enforcement._

_On hearing that, for a second my mind had gone to the two men in my life: an ex-boyfriend cop and an ex-military security expert who I was in love with but who insisted his life didn't lend itself to relationships. I'd dismissed the idea as soon as it had entered my mind. I'd tried to convince the FBI that they were wrong, but I was told they were professional profilers and they knew best. But what if they were wrong?_

_There were three women who might possibly fit the other parameters of the profile. Lacy Janes was a socialite who'd rather pay someone else to do her dirty work, but she was furious enough that I was having a relationship with Batman—that's what I called the ex-military security expert—that I could see her losing her cool._

_Gwen Averies was an avid gardener, and although she was a small slip of a woman, she was surprisingly strong. I'd seen her carrying fifty-pound bags of soil like they were nothing._

_The other woman that came to mind was Candy Parsons. She was shy, and although most people would discount her, something about the way she looked at me had my skin crawling. _

_It was late, and I'd had a rough day. Three skips were caught and returned to the system, and every single one of them had given me a hard time. Langley had even tossed me down a flight of stairs. The minute I laid my head on the pillow, the world around me ceased to exist. _

_Suddenly, I jarred awake. My gaze went to the bedside clock, and I noted that I'd only been sleeping twenty minutes or so. Then I heard it. The tinkling of glass breaking. I wondered if that's what had woken me in the first place. _

_I didn't need to turn on the light. My eyes were already adjusting to the dark. I slowly scooted up on the bed till my back was against the headboard and opened the nightstand drawer to pull out the .38 special that I kept there. It was fully loaded, and I knew how to use it. _

_The smell of perfume reached me, and I vaguely remembered the last time I'd smelled that particular brand. I think I'd known it was her all along. I clicked off the safety, swearing that if she showed her face here today, my room would be the last one she ever entered._

_The sound of the floorboard creaking sounded loud in the otherwise quiet house…_

My reading was interrupted at the blare of the alarm going off, and I jerked, causing pain to shoot through my foot. Struggling into a sitting position on the side of the bed, I debated on whether or not to slip into the robe but decided the T-shirt was long enough to cover my bits. I grabbed the crutches and slowly made my way to the door and then hesitated. There was a house full of military trained men—at least I was assuming they had all been in the military at some time. Did I really want to go out there and see what had caused the alarm to go off?

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and slowly made my way in the direction of the control panel. If nothing else, I could turn off the alarm and look around to see what might have activated it in the first place. The closer I got to my destination, the brighter the house got. When I turned the last corner, it was to see the others standing there talking in low tones as they looked around, as if they were searching for something while Ranger was silencing the alarm.

Just then, the sound of a 747 taking off was heard, and Lester glared at the others as he said, "See! I told you there were planes taking off from the road. They have to be in order for it to be that loud."

Tank nodded his head. "I've been hearing them ever since we got here."

Red glared at the guys. "And I'm telling you that's not a 747. I've flown enough of them to know what they sound like, and that's not it."

Lester turned to her. "It's the only explanation, gorgeous."

She threw up her hands. Turning to Ranger, she glared. "He's your cousin. Talk some sense into them."

I couldn't help but grin as I said, "She's right. That's not a plane. _That's_ the reason Lula and I are at opposite ends of the house. She has a tendency to snore, and trying to wake her is useless."

Tank mumbled, "She's got that right."

Red's reaction was to smack Lester in the abdomen with the back of her hand. "See?! Maybe next time you'll listen to me."

Lester winced. "Aw, baby…"

He didn't get a chance to say any more as Red glared at him.

A lopsided grin formed on his face as he put his hands up in surrender.

She gave a decisive nod of her head before turning and heading toward the bedrooms. As she neared where I was standing, she looked back over her shoulder and grinned. "If you're good, maybe we can make some noise of our own to drown her out, and by the time we get done, we'll be too exhausted to care about a little snoring."

Rambo rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "We're in for a long night." He turned to the others. "Between the human 747 and the noise those two make, we'll never get any sleep."

I frowned. "If you guys have some magic green glue, we can soundproof the room so you won't hear the snoring."

Tank looked at me like I had three heads. "Green glue? What's that?"

I shrugged. "It's soundproofing compound. You apply it like caulk, and it converts sound energy to heat energy, effectively absorbing the sound rather than dampening it."

Hector was grinning. "I take care of it tomorrow while she gone."

The rest of the guys headed off to go back to their respective rooms, leaving me alone with Ranger.

He moved in my direction.

I raised my head so that I was looking into his face when he stopped beside me. There was a smile on his face as his hand cupped my chin. "Proud of you, Babe."

Every time he said that to me, a spot deep inside me grew warm. I grinned. "I'll bet you wish you hadn't given up your room so fast."

He leaned down, whispering close to my ear, "You'd lose that bet, Babe. I've slept with war going on around me. A little thing like snoring isn't going to bother me." He winked. "But if you're feeling guilty and want to ease your conscience, I'd be more than happy to share that bed with you. I have to warn you though… If I climb in that bed, neither one of us will be getting any sleep tonight."

I laughed. "As tempting as that offer is, I'll have to turn it down."

He caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. "Then you'd better go back to your room before I decide to change your mind."

For several seconds, I didn't move. When his eyes started dilating, I turned as gracefully as possible with crutches and made my way back to the bedroom. As tempted as I was to take him up on his offer, I knew that I wasn't ready to take that step with him…yet.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**Stephanie's POV**

I was having the most interesting dream when my alarm decided to go off right in the middle. My eyes blinked open as I let out a regretful sigh, then threw back the covers so that I could make my way to the bathroom. It took me a bit longer to get ready because of the boot, but I didn't have as much of a struggle as I'd had the day before.

Once I was dressed and ready, I made my way to the kitchen. Lula was already there, along with Ranger and his team. There was a plate of pancakes in the middle of the table with several bowls, each with a different type of fruit in them. The smell was wonderful, and I closed my eyes and took a deep whiff. A moan escaped before I could stop it, and then I asked, "Who made this wonderful ambrosia?"

Red grinned. "I'm responsible for the fruit. That I can do. As for the pancakes…" She used her thumb to indicate Bobby. "Bobby is a gourmet chef as well as a medic. He got one of those multi-use functions when they were handing them out." Her gaze moved to Lester before she added, "Lester got one of them too, but his multi-talents lie in another direction, if you know what I mean."

A couple of the guys laughed when Lester's cheeks got red. His gaze moved to Red, and from the look, he was promising retribution. Red's eyes got glassy, as if she were thinking of just how Lester was going to pay her back.

I slowly made my way over to the table, opting for the only seat available, which was between Ranger and Hector. In no time, I had my plate filled with three pancakes and topped them with fruit. As I dug in, I listened to the lighthearted banter going on around the table.

It was as I was placing the last bite in my mouth that Lula cleared her throat and asked, "Are we going to sit around goofing off all day, or are we going in to get some work done? I don't know about you jokers, but I got a whole mess of stuff ta get through today."

For several beats, there was absolute silence.

I looked to Ranger to see what was wrong and noticed the gleam in his eyes. As if he sensed my gaze on him, he turned in my direction and winked. I grinned as I let myself relax, knowing there wasn't a problem.

Ranger gave a miniscule nod, and as if that was the secret cue, everyone started getting up and clearing their dishes. Ranger stood and grabbed my dishes along with his.

I looked up with a smile. "Thank you. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage carrying them with the crutches and all."

"No problem, Babe. If you need to grab anything before we leave, now would be the time, though."

I shook my head. "I haven't had a chance to replace my personal things. They went up with the car."

"Why don't you do whatever calling around you need to this morning to get what you need?"

"I'm in no hurry. Besides, there are a few things we didn't get to yesterday that need to be taken care of before the medical equipment comes in."

Bobby's head lifted, his eyes twinkling with excitement, like a little boy on Christmas Day. "I have the manifest ready for you. It's quite lengthy because we need to replace everything and I don't want to skimp."

I shook my head. "No need to worry about that. I'm sure Uncle Terry won't mind. I have a feeling some people are in for a rude awakening."

Ranger reached out to help me up, and accepting his hand, I couldn't help but feel the heat emanating from him.

Once I was standing, he released my hand so that I could operate the crutches. Everyone grabbed their things, and Ranger was the last one out, making sure the house was locked up behind him.

I enjoyed the ride to RangeMan and spent the time thinking about what was left on the agenda in order to have the company up and running. There was still a bad taste in my mouth about what I'd found out regarding Mr. Dillard, and along with some of the other things that had been happening, I was beginning to wonder if there were tie-ins to the bug being planted on the stove. I looked at Ranger as I debated whether to say anything to him yet or not, but decided to wait until I had more concrete proof. We had enough on our plates just dealing with what we were already dealing with. No need to go and borrow even more trouble.

A few minutes later, Ranger pulled into the garage at RangMan, parking in the stall closest to the elevator. He came around and helped me out, and then we walked over to the elevator together.

Lula and Tank were already there waiting for the door to open.

We stepped out on the fifth floor, and I returned to the office where Hector and I were working the day before, while Ranger made his way to Chan's office. I was hoping that it wouldn't take long to have all the equipment looked over, and then we could get down to the nuts and bolts of fixing things.

As I walked into the office, I noticed a nice-looking Hispanic man about Ranger's build. He was frowning over Chan's burned-out shell of a computer.

I stood in the doorway for several seconds before I asked, "Something I can do for you?"

He whirled around, his right hand on the butt of his gun and a startled look in his eyes. "Who are you?"

Lifting a shoulder in a shrug, I said, "I could ask you the same thing."

He smiled, as if to disarm me, but the narrowing of his eyes and the fact that his hand never left the butt of his gun belayed the relaxed air he seemed to be trying to project. "I'm Manny. I'm a technical expert."

I continued to watch him, not giving away what I was thinking as I replied, "I'm Stephanie. I'm helping Ranger to get this company back up to peak proficiency."

The look on his face relaxed. "Ah. Nice to meet you, Stephanie… You don't mind if I call you that, do you?"

Shaking my head, I told him, "No, I don't mind. Stephanie or Steph both work."

He nodded. "Hector said the two of you got quite a bit done yesterday. He was really impressed with how you got the material out of Chan's computer." He hesitated a moment and then added, "I have to admit, I find it hard to believe that anyone is better at this shi…uhm…stuff than Hector."

I nodded. "Hector is very good at what he does."

Just then, the man himself walked into the office. The fierce frown on his face had Manny moving restlessly from foot to foot. The rapid-fire Spanish that followed told me that Hector had been listening to the conversation for at least a couple of minutes before making himself known. "_What are you doing in here? You have a job to do somewhere else. You'd better stick to it. If something comes down because you weren't on the ball and there is anything left after Ranger gets done with you, then I'll take a turn._"

Manny grimaced. "_Ah, come on, man! I was just curious. I've never heard you so enthusiastic about a woman like this. I had to see what was going on._"

Hector's expression was sardonic. "_You think I'm making it up._"

Manny grinned. "_Well, yeah, there's that too._"

I pushed off from the doorway where I was standing and made my way into the room. Instead of going to my own laptop, which was still sitting where I'd left it, I made my way over to Chan's and sat down.

Yesterday when I'd told Chan he gave up too easily, I'd meant it. I knew there was a way I could save his computer, but now wasn't the time to be worrying about that. I turned the computer over and went to work taking out the part of the machine that was the main component. Once I had that, I dumped the rest of the laptop into the garbage.

Feeling eyes on me, I looked up to see Hector grinning. Manny, on the other hand, wore a frown. "Why did you do that? There's no way to save it?"

I lifted an eyebrow. "On the contrary. The main component can be salvaged and placed in another compatible laptop. All I have to do is run it through my machine when I set it up so that if there are any leftover issues, they won't carry over to the new machine."

Manny shook his head. "It seems like a waste of time if you ask me."

I shrugged. "To you and me it might be a waste of time, but for whatever reason, this has sentimental value to Chan. It will take a bit more effort, but in the end, he will be happy. Seems like a fair trade."

The man I'd seen the day before when we arrived popped his head into the room. "You ready to go, Manny?"

"Yeah, I'm coming, Terminator."

My eyes widened. "Terminator?" I asked without thought.

The man smiled and stepped into the room. "Well, hello, pretty lady. I see the boss brought you back to liven up the office. Too bad you're on the day shift. We sure could use some office decoration on the nights."

My eyes narrowed. "Are you insinuating the only reason that I'm here is because I look good?"

His grin got bigger. "Of course, sweet thing. A little gal like you wouldn't know the first thing about the security business."

Terminator suspected nothing as I batted my eyes. The false accent I'd perfected during high school drama class made its appearance as I said, "Why, I do declare. If that's not the sweetest compliment I've ever been paid then I just don't rightly know what is."

I reached out my hand to Terminator as I batted my eyes once again.

He took my hand in his and stepped closer.

I used his superior size to my advantage and, in a fast strike, had him lying on the ground at my feet as my eyes narrowed. I smiled as I looked down at him and, in as deadly a tone as I could manage, told him, "Don't…ever…call…me…an…office…decoration…again!"

Terminator's eyes widened. "Yes, ma'am!" My eyes narrowed even more, and the man actually started shaking. "What? What did I do? Tell me, and I'll never do it again. I promise!"

In the same tone, I replied, "You called me ma'am. Do I look old enough to be a ma'am?"

He was still shaking as he shook his head emphatically. His voice was hoarse when he said, "I'm sorry. I won't ever do that again, either."

Patting his shoulder, I smiled. "Good. Now, I think it's time for you to go and get some sleep. Wouldn't want someone getting the drop on you tonight while you're working, now would we?"

Once again, he shook his head emphatically. "No, ma'…uh…what should I call you?"

"Stephanie or Steph. Take your pick."

He swallowed hard and then whispered, "Can I get up now, Stephanie?"

Moving back so that Terminator could get up, I noticed the look on Manny's and Hector's faces. While Hector seemed to be almost laughing to himself, Manny's eyes were wide and he was watching me with wary respect.

Terminator was up in seconds and went racing from the office.

I heard Tank's booming voice call out, "Hey! Terminator. Where's the fire?"

I didn't wait for Manny to join the other man in leaving the office before I got to work. There was a lot to do, and we didn't have a lot of time in which to get it done if we wanted to show that this company was firmly under the control of Ranger and his team. We needed the clients to know that RangeMan Security was in no way affected by the massive personnel change that had occurred.

Five minutes later, Tank stepped into the office. It was obvious from the look on his face—and the fact that he was biting his cheek—that he was trying to keep a straight face, but he seemed to be losing because there was a smile slowly creeping on to his face. "You have a minute, Steph?"

I looked up at him as I continued typing. "What do you need?"

Tank blushed. "Well…" He looked decidedly uncomfortable about something.

"Just spit it out."

He sighed. "What the he…umm, heck, did you do to Terminator? He was a basket case when I saw him in the hall. I couldn't get anything out of him that made sense. He kept mumbling something about not an office decoration and no calling ma'am. Do you have any idea what he was talking about, since he came from here?"

Saving what I was working on, I turned my full attention to Tank as I said, "He called me an office decoration. All I did was show him that I don't care for that label. Then he called me ma'am, and I explained I don't like that title either."

Tank's eyes widened. "Umm, but what did you do? The man was shaking."

Hector spoke up, a big grin on his face. "She threw him; he landed like sack of potatoes. Shaking like a girl."

Tank turned to look at me. After several seconds he shook his head. "No way. You weigh…what, one twenty-five? Terminator is twice your weight and has you by nine or ten inches."

Smiling, I told him, "That's the beauty of martial arts. It allows a weaker person to take down someone bigger and stronger."

His eyebrow went up. "What kind of training do you have?"

I smiled. "My sister's husband was in the Navy, and then he went into law enforcement. He made sure that Val—my sister—and I were both able to defend ourselves in case we were attacked. Of course, Val wanted to impress him because at the time, they were dating, so we didn't let on that we already knew all of that kind of stuff."

He stood there looking at me as if he expected me to continue. Lifting one shoulder, I obliged him as I went on to say, "My dad was an Army Ranger. He started teaching us when I was five and Val was seven."

Tank leaned back against the doorjamb with his arms folded across his chest. "That seems a bit young. Any particular reason he started then?"

I grimaced. "On my first day of kindergarten—after school—one of the third-grade boys knocked me down, then got on top of me and tried to kiss me. I tried to get away from him, but he was too strong. Lula saw what was going on, ran over, knocked him off me, then started walloping him good. The principal came out and was going to kick her out of school until I spoke up and told him what happened." I shook my head. "She insisted on walking me home, and when my dad saw that my new dress was torn and found out what had happened…" I shuddered as I remembered the look on my father's face. "Anyway, Lula and I have been best friends ever since then, and Daddy made sure that all three of us knew how to defend ourselves if the need ever arose."

There was silence in the room when I got done speaking. I looked at the two men, and from the looks on their faces, I wouldn't want to meet up with them in a dark alley if I was on their bad side.

Suddenly, Tank's expression changed and he smiled. "Okay, little girl." He shook his head. "I just can't wrap my head around the fact that Terminator is scared shitless of you." He turned and walked out of the room, still shaking his head.

Once he'd left, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Hector was standing there with a glint in his eyes. "What's his name?"

I frowned. "Who?"

"The one who knocked you down and got on top of you."

I got a funny feeling in my stomach. After studying Hector for a couple of minutes, I shook my head. "It's over and done with."

Hector's hand went to the knife that he wore at his side, his fingers caressing the blade. "Come now, Estefanía, tell me."

I leaned over and kissed the teardrop under his eye. "Sorry. I can't do that."

He stared at me for several seconds, in which I met his gaze and refused to look away. Suddenly, he nodded and said, "For now."

He was out the door, and I was left sitting there wondering what he meant with that last cryptic comment.

By lunchtime, Hector and I had managed to get through everything except the equipment in the conference room. Shutting down the machine I was working with, I sat back in the chair and said, "That's that! We'll tackle the conference room after lunch."

He nodded. "_Si_. You eat now?"

I wrinkled my nose. I'd made a detour into the break room looking for a snack about an hour before, but there was nothing but health foods in the fridge and cupboards. I let out a sigh and said, "I was hoping for real food."

He chuckled. "We take a walk?"

My eyes lit up. "Are you telling me that you know a place that serves real food within walking distance?"

The smile on his face got bigger as he nodded.

I grabbed my crutches and said, "Lead on."

We'd just walked out of the office when a booming voice demanded, "Where's my princess?"

I made my way around the alcove to see Uncle Terry looking around as he stood beside Bobby. The minute his eyes landed on me, he smiled and hurried forward, saying, "There's my girl," as he enfolded me in a big hug.

"It's great to see you, Uncle Terry."

He released me, stepping back. He waved to the cast on my leg. "What happened?"

I shook my head. "Just a little accident, really."

He continued to stare at me with a steely look on his face, telling me he wasn't accepting my explanation.

By then, Ranger had joined us, as well as Tank, Lula, Chan, and Lester.

I rolled my eyes as I let out a forced breath. "It really was an accident, Uncle Terry. I was painting a wall, and instead of finding a ladder, I stacked chairs together. When I reached to get the last spot, I overbalanced the chairs and came crashing down. The metatarsal bone on the little toe side was badly broken, that's all."

"So this has nothing to do with your stalker?"

The tension in the air was suddenly thick enough to cut with a knife.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

**Stephanie's POV**

Ranger stepped forward. Although there was no change to his facial features, I got the distinct impression he wasn't happy. "_Stalker_? I made a reference to you having dealings with stalkers. Not once in that conversation did you mention you still had one."

Lula opened her mouth to say something, but one look from Ranger had her looking to the sky as if she were seeking divine intervention.

His gaze returned to me, and I knew there wasn't going to be anything to save me from having to talk. The growling of my stomach deflected the tension just a bit, as Ranger turned to Hector and in rapid-fire Spanish, he told him, "_Grab something for the ladies, and bring it to the conference room_."

Hector hesitated for a fraction of a second, then nodded and replied, "_We haven't checked out the equipment in there yet_. _That's on the agenda for this afternoon._"

Ranger nodded. His hand descended on my back as he indicated I should precede them into the room. For a minute, when Lula went to follow, I thought he was going to tell her not to come. He glanced at me for a split second, then allowed her to follow without comment—as if he'd seen something in my expression that told him I needed her with us for this.

The conference room was much like you would expect—a table with several chairs set around it, as well as a whiteboard mounted on the wall and a laptop on the table. One wall was mostly window; however, the lighting in the room was muted with the venetian blinds closed. There was a small alcove that held a mini fridge, sink, counter, and coffee maker. Everything you would need for a business meeting. The chairs were much like the ones at the desks out on the main floor—in other words, adequate for use but lacking in comfort.

We took our seats, and I found myself between Ranger and Uncle Terry. There was silence for several seconds as everyone sat staring at me. My stomach chose that moment to let itself be known once again. I could feel the heat in my cheeks as smiles appeared on the others' faces.

Ranger looked to Uncle Terry and asked, "Would you like something to drink, Mr. Akron?"

Uncle Terry nodded as he said, "I'd appreciate some coffee if you have it."

Lester stood and moved over to the alcove. He measured out the grounds and poured water into the machine to start it brewing. While he waited for it to finish, he took out several cups from the cupboard before turning to ask, "Is there anyone who wants something different? There's other drinks in the fridge."

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and gently bit down on it as I debated whether to stick with the coffee or ask for a Coke.

Lula grimaced. "No coffee for me. That shit goes right through me, and I don't got time to be hauling ass to the bathroom every five minutes. I'll take a Coke, and bring one for Stephanie too, why don't ya."

Lester's eyes widened as he looked at me.

I smiled as I said, "Yes, please."

Nodding, he opened the fridge and grabbed two Cokes before turning to pour the now brewed coffee into cups and placing the beverages on a tray to carry over to the table. He was just setting the platter down when the most delicious smells made their way into the conference room.

I lifted my nose to take a whiff and closed my eyes as I absorbed the aroma.

Lula started sniffing as she looked around. "I smell meatball subs…pizza…Italian sub…and…" She lifted her nose a little higher and took a bigger whiff before, eyes widening, she broke out in a huge smile. "Tarametsue!" She turned to Tank and glared. "I hope whoever is bringing that food brought enough of that for everyone and didn't get stingy like some people I could mention."

Tank glared right back at her but remained silent.

We didn't have to wait long because the door opened and Hector walked in with a large box filled with lots of brown sacks. He set the box on the table, and when Lula went to reach for a bag, he held up a hand and said, "You wait."

She sat back with a pout on her face.

My mouth watered as I watched Hector unpack everything. There was a large container that he took over to the counter in the alcove, and when he came back, he was carrying plates, knives, forks, and spoons. Once he had everything uncovered, he looked at me and smiled. "Estefanía goes first."

I went to stand, but he held up a hand. "You tell me, I fix."

Smiling, I told him, "It all looks so good. I don't know if I can choose."

He grinned, then proceeded to place a small portion of each dish on my plate before setting it before me, along with utensils.

My eyes widened at the amount of food on my plate. It was like going to a buffet and piling your plate as high as possible without everything falling off. Hector managed to make it so that nothing was overlapping though. My stomach let out another growl.

The corner of Ranger's mouth twitched. "Better start eating, Babe. Wouldn't want the beast getting any angrier."

I rolled my eyes at him and then stuck my tongue out. The heated look he sent my way told me if we'd been alone, he would've been reacting in a whole other manner. I quickly looked at my plate and reached for the quarter of a meatball sub that was on my plate. I took a big bite and closed my eyes in pleasure as the wonderful flavors hit my taste buds. A moan escaped before I could stop it.

Lula reached for a plate and said, "Let me get me some of that."

This time, Hector didn't comment, so she loaded her plate.

Once Uncle Terry had filled his plate and started eating, I turned to him and asked, "What happened to Mr. Dillard?"

He had a fierce look on his face. "He's no longer working for my company. There were a total of five people who needed to be replaced. It was easy enough. General Cooperman has three sons who were all looking for work. One call, and he sent them over, along with a couple of their friends."

I frowned. "Wasn't he in the unit with you and Daddy?"

He nodded. "That's right." He grinned. "And I know damn well they don't have a problem working with people of any color, since they are a mix of several races. Chance is Comanche, French Creole, and Cuban, and his lovely wife is black with German, Dutch, English, Italian, and Norse."

I shook my head. "It's hard to believe the boys are that old already."

He chuckled. "They turned nineteen on their last birthday." Turning to the others, he continued, "Justin, James, and Jeremy are the general's three sons. He also has three daughters—Kandy, Kaddie, and Kourtney, who also just celebrated their nineteenth birthday. Diane Cooperman only had one pregnancy, and she has six children as a result. They didn't want to take the chance of a repeat performance."

Lester's eyes widened. "Can't argue with that logic."

I took a drink of Coke to wash down the food that I had just swallowed before asking, "You won't have any negative effects from what Mr. Dillard was doing, will you?"

He shook his head. "Don't worry about me, princess. I'm rock solid. There will be a write up in the paper later today. I'm guessing that our orders will be picking back up in the very near future."

Hector brought out the container he'd put on the counter, and sure enough, the thing was filled with tiramisu. He gave me a generous portion before dividing the rest between the others.

Ranger was the only one to pass on the treat. I finished mine and looked over to see his still sitting there. I looked up at him and asked, "Aren't you eating yours? It's really delicious."

His lip curled slightly in a small smile. Reaching out, he pushed the dish so that it was sitting in front of me as he said, "Go for it."

I grinned. I didn't need any second bidding to dig into the dessert. My eyes were closed as I savored the flavor when I heard Lula squeak. Opening my eyes, I turned to look at her.

She smacked Tank's forearm with the back of her hand and said, "You're fallin' down on the taking notes front. I don't see you pushing your dessert my way."

Tank glared. "This is my dessert, woman, and there ain't no way you are getting any of it. You got your own."

She pouted like she had when Hector had made her wait before filling her plate.

Just then the door opened, and Red stepped in. She took in the spread on the table, and her eyes went to Lester. "You're just racking up the demerits. I didn't get a call telling me there was spaghetti in the building. I had to sniff it out. There better be enough for me to have some, and if that's the last of the tiramisu, you'll be sharing yours."

Lester's eyes widened as he looked frantically at the container of spaghetti before he relaxed. "There's plenty, Red. Come on over and join us."

She placed a generous helping of spaghetti on her plate and then scraped the rest of the tiramisu onto a smaller plate, setting it beside the spaghetti. Moving over to the fridge, she grabbed a container of iced tea and poured some into a glass before joining us.

When Lula saw Red scraping the last of the dessert onto her plate, she gave the dish a wistful look before letting her gaze move to the rest of the food and settling on another portion of Italian sub.

I had to agree with her choice. Of all the food, I'd most enjoyed the portion of Italian sub that I'd had. Italian bread sliced in half to make an open-faced sandwich, Italian hamburger, Italian beef, sliced tomato, pickle, sliced banana peppers, and meatballs, all on one side of the sandwich, covered with sauce and then mozzarella cheese. The meatball sub had always been my favorite…until I got one taste of that magnificent creation. Now I was hooked. Unfortunately, I was stuffed.

Reaching for my Coke, I took another drink as I looked around the conference-room table. The others were finishing up as Red was digging into her meal.

I was hoping I would have a delay in the conversation that I knew was coming, but Ranger dashed my hopes when he said, "All right. We've eaten. Now it's time to face the music. I need you to tell me all about this stalker."

Red's head lifted as her eyes widened. "Stalker? Who has a stalker?"

I let out a forced breath. "The real reason that Lula and I left Trenton was because I had a stalker."

"No shit?!" Her eyes narrowed. "Stephanie… I didn't hear your last name. You wouldn't happen to be Stephanie Plum, would you?"

I nodded. "One and the same."

"Holy crap! You burned down the funeral home! Wasn't there something about a circus too? Three mob bosses brought a circus to Trenton to cover up a major operation, and the whole thing went up in smoke when two of the spectators got into a knock-down, drag-out fight. Weren't you one of the ones who got in the fight?"

My cheeks heated and I lowered my eyes. I couldn't help peeking at Ranger to see how he was taking the news.

His eyes were narrowed in thought, but he didn't seem overly upset. The corner of his mouth started to lift. "RangeMan was in on the sting operation. Whoever started the fight did us a huge favor in distracting everyone's attention so we could move in and take down the parties involved."

I grimaced, then said weakly, "It wasn't my fault."

Red grinned. "What happened?"

Lula spoke up. "Joyce Barnyard's what happened. That horny bitch sat down and started spouting her mouth off about what a catch her new boyfriend was and how great he was an' all."

Lester looked puzzled. "Why would that matter?"

Lifting my shoulder in a shrug, I said, "Because the day before, her boyfriend was my fiancé. I decided to surprise him and showed up at his place. Only thing is, I was the one to get the surprise when I walked in and he was doing her on the dining-room table. I left my keys and walked out."

Red looked hot. "Good for you! Low life didn't deserve you. I hope you gave it to the skank."

I winced. "Well, by the time we were done rolling around, she was nearly naked and a good chunk of her hair was missing. I got a couple of bruises and a scratch or two, but that's about it."

Lula shook her head. "You should have listened to yourself on that one. After what he did to you on the first day of kindergarten, he didn't deserve no second chances. You're too soft sometimes, always thinking the best of people."

Red frowned. "What do you mean, what he did the first day of kindergarten?"

Lula looked over to where Red was sitting. "School had just got out for the day, and as I was heading toward the sidewalk to walk home, I seen this older boy run up to Stephanie and knock her down. She was trying to get out from under him, but he was about twice her size. When he tore her dress, I got mad and stomped over to give that bully a fist full of reasons to leave her alone. See, at lunchtime that day, some of the girls in our class was giving me a hard time and telling me I was too fat ta sit with them. Stephanie smiled and called out to me, asking me to sit with her. She was so nice ta me, it made up for those other girls. Anyway, I grabbed that third-grade boy, Dickie Orr, by the hair and pulled him off her and beat the holy crap outta him. Then I walked Stephanie home." She turned to me and said, "The look on your daddy's face was one I'll never forget."

A low growl from down the table had me looking in that direction to see Hector's eyes glinting. My eyes widened as the fact Lula gave the boy's name registered, and I hurried to say, "Daddy made sure Dickie regretted his actions."

I jumped as Red slammed her hand on the table. The look in her eyes promised murder. "If the asshole's still breathing, it wouldn't have been enough." She turned to Lester. "Anybody does something like that to Ava, and you'll have to bail me out of jail on a murder charge."

Lester shook his head. "I'd be right in there with you."

Ranger's hand descended on my forearm.

I looked up at him, and even though his look seemed relaxed, I felt the tension emanating from him as he asked, "Let's get back to the stalker."

I shrugged. "I don't know who it was. Everywhere I went, it seemed like there were notes that they were going to make me pay and how they were going to make sure no one else could have me. Daddy thought it might be Dickie and caught him outside the police station when he was leaving after seeing a client." I grimaced. "Dickie has seen the error of his younger ways and is now an upstanding lawyer in the community." I smiled. "Although he no longer has any hope of running for public office because the whole town knows what he did—the Joyce thing really blew up in his face. Anyway, after talking to him at length, Daddy said that Dickie didn't have what it takes to actually be a stalker. Although, he didn't rule out his hiring someone."

Lula grinned. "Your daddy's idea of talking to him was the same as mine when we was in kindergarten."

Uncle Terry nodded. There was a smile on his face as he said, "Frank never was one to suffer fools in silence. Of course, we both hated that you were hurt by what Dickie did. It was the happiest day of both of our lives when you broke it off with him."

Turning to look at him, I said, "I know you don't believe me any more than Daddy did, but I really wasn't hurt by what Dickie did. I was relieved not to have to marry him."

Uncle Terry's eyes narrowed. "So you really were just marrying him to make your mother happy?"

Uh-oh! I sat frozen for several seconds, trying to figure a way out of this. If I told the truth, then Uncle Terry would be on the phone the second he left here, calling Daddy to tell him they'd been right about my affections not being the reason I was engaged with the weasel and it was Mother's harping that had worn me down in the end. Of course, once he told Daddy that, then Mother would be in for a lecture about interfering in my life once again, and then ten seconds after that lecture ended, she'd be on the phone to me, lecturing me. I let out a deep sigh. I loved my mother, and I know there wasn't a mean bone in her body. She just wanted very badly to see me married with a family of my own. She didn't see how I could be happy living a life where the man wasn't the center of my universe and I put my ambitions behind me and spend my life taking care of a husband and giving her grandchildren.

A muscle clenched in Ranger's jaw. "Back to the stalker…"

I smiled at him. Although I didn't want to talk about that either, it was the lesser of two evils. "Between Daddy and Joe Morelli—my brother-in-law—they ruled out all the likely suspects. Dickie, Vito Grizzoli, Harry the Hammer, Eddie Abruzzi, and Benito Ramirez." I lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

There was absolute silence for several heartbeats before Ranger's eyes narrowed on me and he asked, "Why those particular suspects?"

"Vito, Harry, Abruzzi, and Ramirez were all involved with the circus. Each of them lost a fortune. Then of course there was the BMW dealership that Abruzzi owned and the laundry service that Vito owned."

Ranger grabbed a pad and pen and placed it before me. "Write down anyone who might have even the slightest reason to come after you."

My eyes widened. "That's quite a list."

He nodded to the pad. "Don't leave anyone out."

My bottom lip made its way back between my teeth. "That's just it. I've already done a search into all of their backgrounds, and it just doesn't feel like one of them is responsible."

"Give us access to those files so we can do some looking as well. Until we determine if there is a legitimate threat, you'll need someone with you wherever you go."

Lula muttered, "Uh-oh."

Tank frowned. "Why uh-oh?"

Uncle Terry started chuckling.

Everyone looked in his direction.

"It's been nice knowing you, Manoso."

Ranger raised an eyebrow.

I smiled sweetly. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I've been doing it for twenty-nine years and see no reason to hand control over now."

Ranger smiled. "Twenty-nine, Babe?"

I rolled my eyes. "All right. Thirty. Happy now?"

He chuckled. "You still have control for now, as long as there are no incidents and the danger level is low, but if that changes at any time, I'll reassess and take the necessary actions to ensure your safety."

My eyes narrowed. "So as long as there are no incidents, we continue with the status quo, except that I'll have someone following me around?"

His head moved in the smallest of nods. "Correct."

I gave a single nod of my head. "I can live with that."

"I know that you've already looked into the potential suspects, so if you could let us have copies of that information, I'd appreciate it."

One again, I nodded. "I can give you a file on everything that I've done. A second pair of eyes wouldn't hurt."

Ranger asked, "Has anything happened since you've been in Miami to make you think that your stalker has followed you?"

I glanced over at Lula. She got that bulldog look on her face and crossed her arms over her chest. I knew that if I wasn't forthcoming, she would rat me out. I looked back at Ranger and said, "Three nights before you and Tank showed up, there was an attempted break-in. When we looked at the video surveillance, nothing showed up. I back-traced the breach to Newark."

There was an odd look on Ranger's face, as if a piece of a puzzle had just fit into place.

When he didn't comment, I added, "I don't know if it was the stalker or if it was something to do with the situation here."

He nodded. "All right. We'll look into all of it. For now, we'll be on alert." He turned to Uncle Terry. "I assure you, General, we'll take very good care of Stephanie."

"Good to hear. I'll call her daddy and tell him what's going on."

I winced before asking, "Can you emphasize that I'm doing great and everything is under control?"

Uncle Terry laughed.

Lester shook his head. "Don't be afraid of your daddy, Beautiful. We'll protect you."

My eyes widened. "Do you know who my dad is?"

Lester shrugged. "I'm sure Mr. Plum is a reasonable person. He sounds like a good dad. Just looking out for his little girl."

Uncle Terry nodded. "That's him in a nutshell. But just so you boys have an idea of who you'll be dealing with if anything happens to his pumpkin, General Frank Plum will have your heads on a platter."

A low whistle came from Tank's direction.

I looked over to him, and his eyes were gleaming at me. "Damn, we're getting slow. We should have put it together when his name was mentioned. Little girl, that just changed the playing field." He looked around the table.

Following his example, I looked around at the knowing expressions on the others' faces and knew that Daddy's reputation had preceded him and these guys knew exactly who he was. I turned to Ranger, and there was a smile on his face.

He leaned in and whispered, "I hope you like shadows, Babe. It looks like you're going to have more people watching over you than you bargained for."


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**Ranger's POV**

At the mention of General Plum, all the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I could still remember the day I'd made the mistake of hotwiring a car and going for a joyride. I'd been a cocky kid of thirteen and angry at the world because my older brother Raul had been killed in action while serving overseas. I'd skipped school with a couple of friends, and we'd gone looking for fun. I could still remember the look of that shiny black car sitting at the curb and the itch to take it for a spin. It hadn't taken any convincing to get me to break into the '69 Mustang and hot-wire it.

_The feel of all that power at my fingertips was a heady experience, and I let my foot get heavy on the gas pedal. Even the flashing lights and wailing siren didn't faze me as I grew bolder, letting the speed increase until we were going nearly one hundred miles an hour. The little girl came out of nowhere. I had been going too fast to slow down in time, and it was either hit her—which would kill her without a doubt—or turn the car away from her and take the hit ourselves. I told my buddies to brace and did the only thing my conscience would let me do. The car spun out of control, but I was sure we'd missed the child who couldn't have been more than two years old. _

_The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital with a man in an Army uniform looking down at me, a serious expression on his_ _face._ _He gave a slight nod as our eyes met. "Why?" _

_I knew what he was asking, but I was in no mood to talk. I hurt. In body, mind, and conscience. Instead of answering him, I looked away._

_His tone grew stern, and even though he never raised his voice, he demanded an answer as he said, "I asked you a question, boy. What happens to you next depends on your answer."_

_I felt compelled to look at him. It was hard to talk because of the pain, but I managed to say, "It's not fair that he was killed. He was coming home the next day."_

_The man sat down in the chair beside the bed and lowered his head, as if he was sad. "Life is often not fair. It's how we deal with those trials that tells a man's measure. Now, I don't approve of what you did in stealing my car." He paused, looking me in the eye as, once again, he gave a nod. "But I do approve of what you did to save that little girl. You'll make a fine man one of these days. Your job is to live long enough for that to happen."_

_I was two parts scared and one part proud at that moment, and as much as I tried to keep silent, I couldn't help but ask, "What's going to happen to me?"_

"_Well, son… You're going to get better, and then your parents will be sending you to live with your grandmother so that you won't be as exposed to the gangs as you are here. While you live with your grandmother, you'll be doing community service, and then when you turn eighteen, I expect you to join the service. You pick the branch; they're all good ones and will help you to become a fine young man. One tour, which is four to six years depending on which branch you go into. Then your debt will be considered paid."_

_I swallowed hard. "What about the little girl?"_

_He smiled. "You saved her life, son. That and that alone is why I'm giving you this second chance. Don't let me down."_

"_Who are you?"_

"_Colonel Frank Plum, US Army Rangers."_

_He held out his hand, and I slowly lifted mine to accept it._

_He nodded. "You rest now."_

"_What about my friends?"_

_He shook his head. "Those two punks with you aren't your friends. They got out of the car without a scratch and took off running, leaving you there to face the music on your own. Their fates are sealed."_

_With that, he turned and walked out of the room._

The clearing of a throat brought me back to what was going on around me. I looked over at Stephanie. I'd been determined to protect her the minute I'd known she had a stalker, even if they weren't making their presence known at the moment. Learning that Frank Plum was her father made it even more important that I protect her from any possible harm. The man had saved my life seventeen years ago. I had no intention of letting anything happen to his daughter. But there was an even bigger reason than the fact that I owed the man my life… Quite simply, I needed her alive so that I could go on living. There was no getting around it: I was in love with her and had been since the moment I met her.

Once the meal was over and we had a plan of action in place, the rest of us left so that Stephanie would have some privacy to talk with her uncle. As I worked with Chan in his office with Tank and Lula, I found my eyes continually going to the conference room. When the door opened and Stephanie walked out with Akron, the smile on her face as she said goodbye relaxed me. Until then, I hadn't known just how tense I was.

**Stephanie's POV**

The talk I'd had with Uncle Terry was quite illuminating. Frank Dillard had been working for Akron twenty years. According to Uncle Terry, the man used to be a stand-up guy, and he'd had no clue that Dillard was actually a racist. The man had had some difficulties about five years ago when he'd received a letter from a high school sweetheart telling him that she'd given birth to his son twenty-nine years before. Since then, there had been a drastic personality change, but Dillard was seeing a psychiatrist to help him deal with the issue. He hadn't wanted to, but Uncle Terry had insisted when reports of Dillard's raging at customers on the phone got back to him, and he'd insisted that if the man wanted to keep his job, he needed to seek help.

I couldn't help but wonder what it was about learning that he had a son that would have made the man change, though. Sure, anyone would be upset, but if there had been no racial issues for fifteen years and then one day, his personality took a huge detour and he was raging at customers, there had to be a reason.

When it was time for Uncle Terry to leave, he insisted I not get up and walk him to the door, but I just smiled and told him I had a pressing need that would require me leaving the conference room, and with him beside me, I could move a bit faster.

He chuckled as he held out his arm.

Grabbing my crutches for the return trip, I took his arm, and he walked me to the restroom, insisting that my need was more urgent and I needn't walk him any farther.

Once I'd taken care of business, I slowly made my way back to the conference room, where I got busy checking out the equipment in the room.

It was nearly four-thirty when I checked the clock, noticing that Hector hadn't come back yet, and I tried to remember if he'd said anything earlier. I replayed everything from the conversation last night to what had gone on today and remembered that Hector had said he would take care of adding the green glue to Lula's room. Since I had everything basically done and just needed to reboot the computer, I got busy with that so that tomorrow, we'd be able to tackle another job.

The door opened a short time later, and a group of men I hadn't met yet entered along with Manny, Terminator, and Ram, who I remembered from the day before. I continued what I was doing, rather than stopping to gawk at them. As the time got closer to six, more and more guys joined the group. I felt eyes on me, watching, but I'd had practice at ignoring being watched.

It was six on the dot when Ranger and Tank entered the room. There was no need to look up to see it was them. The tingling on the back of my neck told me Ranger was near, and the dimming of light told me Tank was beside him—the man was big enough to block the light from coming in from the doorway.

Ranger and Tank took the chairs on either side of me, and Ranger started the meeting by saying, "Report."

Rambo spoke up first, saying, "We had three break-in attempts. All the perpetrators were caught and delivered to the police station, and charges were pressed."

Rodriguez spoke up next. "I made a small dent in the searches. It would seem the men who pretended to work here weren't capable of finding their head because it was up their ass. About all I was able to get done today was to sort the files according to priority, and I found five high-bond skips that time is running out on." He set five folders on the table in front of him. "Stan Corely needs to be returned to the system by Friday. The last day for Nathan Helms and John Lathem is the Monday after, and for Graham Neeley and George Henderson, it's the following Thursday."

I tried not to listen to their conversation and just concentrate on what I was doing, but I had a mind that was a sponge for information. It was easy enough for me to concentrate on what I was doing and still hear the conversation going on around me.

Ranger asked Rodriguez to go through the information in Corely's file since he was their first priority.

I was running through the final checklist for the computer when Ram asked what the address was that Ranger wanted them to set up a stakeout. The address flashed in my mind, and I rattled it off without even thinking. The silence in the room, along with the feeling that every eye was on me, had me looking up. Sure enough, all of the guys were sitting there looking at me.

Ranger said, "Why do you say that, Stephanie?"

My eyes widened as two thoughts ran through my mind. The first was that I must have said the address out loud, and second was that Ranger hadn't called me Stephanie very often in the time I'd known him, and I couldn't help but wonder if that was his way of telling me that I was in trouble. I turned to Ranger and gave him a weak smile. "Uhm… What do you mean?"

His eyes narrowed on me. "We were discussing the most likely place to find Stan Corely, and you rattled off an address."

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth as I stalled for time. One look at Ranger, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to explain this away. I ran over the conversation I'd overheard, and within a couple of seconds, I had the answer. I turned to Ranger and said, "You were telling them to set up surveillance at Corely's house, but he won't be there." I turned to Rodriguez and said, "You said that he was known to frequent Uncle Ben's Steak House, Bailey's Dance Hall, and Freddy's."

Rodriguez nodded. "That's right."

I continued, "I'm betting if you followed his spending patterns over the last few months, you'd find that he goes to the Steak House around the dinner hour, then to the Dance Hall—which is just another name for a strip joint—and then he goes to Freddy's when the club closes so that he can have a couple of drinks. It also stands to reason that Freddy's is the place to watch for him because he isn't going to be as sharp when he comes out."

The guys sat there looking at me for several minutes.

Rodriguez shook his head. "We don't have the credit information in the file to see what his spending patterns are. I'm not even a hundred percent sure that this is his routine. It's taken me most of the past two days just to get the files sorted and scratch the surface with these five folders."

My shoulder lifted in a slight shrug as I turned to Ranger. "I have a search program that might help."

Ranger shook his head. "Rodriguez has the best search programs available on the market."

My cheeks heated as I lifted my shoulders. "This program isn't available on the market. It's a prototype of a next-generation system."

Rodriguez's eyes widened as he asked, "Are you talking about REX? Although, why anyone would name a program REX…"

He broke off what he was saying as our gazes connected and my glare registered. He shook his head. "You didn't have anything to do with this program…did you?"

I smiled sweetly as I continued to glare at him. "Why, yes. I designed it."

The corner of Ranger's mouth lifted in a slight smile. "What other surprises am I in for, Babe?" He moved the folder in my direction. "How long will it take you to run this?"

I looked at the file, and my eyes widened in surprise as the face of the man registered. I glanced up at Ranger and said, "This isn't Stan Corely."

Ranger frowned. "What do you mean, he's not Corely?"

My gaze went back to the information listed in the file, and I started shaking my head as I read. Within a couple of minutes, I had all the information processed and once again looked up at Ranger. "This is Paddy Gorman. He's Rangoonie's second in command. It doesn't surprise me that he has more than one alias, though. Gorman is his real name. There are a few grains of truth in the file, but he doesn't hang at any of these places." My fist clenched as I remembered the fear on Lula's face when I'd returned and Gorman brought her from the building.

Ranger placed his hand over mine and asked, "What is it?"

I looked up. "He was the one who hurt Lula."

The sound of glass breaking was loud in the otherwise silent room, and I looked over to see the glass in Tank's hand was shattered. He reached out for the file and looked hard at the photo for several seconds. When he looked up, the expression on his face was fierce as he asked, "What do you know about this guy?"

"He's been Rangoonie's right-hand man for the past nine years." I frowned as a thought just occurred. I turned to Ranger and asked, "Can you have someone bring me my laptop? It's in the office I've been using."

He made a gesture to Lester, and in under a minute, my laptop was on the table in front of me.

I opened it and turned it on. Opening the program that I had working on the Rangoonie problem, I clicked on Gorman's picture. My eyes narrowed as I read the information listed there. Suddenly, a thought popped into my mind, and I looked up absently to ask, "Can I see the other four files?"

A hand moved them into my view but I was too involved in the thoughts racing through my mind to pay attention to who it was attached to. I opened the Helms file, and one look at the picture told me I was on to something. Just to make sure, I quickly looked at the Lathem, Neeley, and Henderson files as well…and then I knew.

My eyes narrowed in concentration as several scenarios raced through my mind. What I kept coming back to was the same answer over and over, no matter how the facts were plugged in. I turned to Ranger. "All five of these men are working for Rangoonie. We already know that Rangoonie is working with Gunner, but we don't know exactly why. That's one of the questions that can't be answered yet, along with: did these men commit these crimes under these aliases before they started working with Gunner and that's how he found them, or were they already working with Gunner and they created them to help him out?"

Ranger's eyes were narrowed. "It makes sense that this is the way he found them. All five are high-dollar bonds, and RangeMan would have been called in to find them when they went FTA." He looked my way and must have seen the puzzlement I felt, because he added, "FTA means failure to appear. When a defendant misses their court date, the bond agency sends a bounty hunter after them."

I nodded.

He went on to say, "If they did surveillance and noticed all these guys getting together with Rangoonie, and possibly recognized him as Ramos's nephew, they might have made a deal to get this group to do some of their dirty work that they didn't want coming back on them."

A cold chill raced down my spine as scenes flashed through my mind. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down on it. "What if they knew each other before any of this came about? If Gunner knew about Rangoonie's ties to Alexander Ramos's operation, what if he convinced Vinnie to do an end run around his uncle and get him a shipment of guns? From everything that's been happening lately, it seems likely that Gunner is part of the Aryan Nation. I know that Gorman looked at Lula different, so it's logical that he has similar leanings."

There was silence for several beats, and then Tank nodded. "Makes sense. All of the non-white members of RangeMan were let go for one reason or another. And I'm betting that if we looked into the situations, we'd find one of these five characters at the center."

Ranger nodded. "I think so too. Jericho said there were too many ghosts. This might have been what he was referring to. They were looking for someone who only existed for one crime, and once that crime was completed, they disappeared. The big question is what Rangoonie would be getting out of this."

I frowned. "Maybe it wasn't an end run around Alexander, but a frame-up. With Alexander out of the way and the backing of Gunner and the rest of his group, Rangoonie would be sitting pretty."

I looked around at the others and knew by the look on their faces that we were all thinking the same thing.

"When had you planned on springing your little trap, Stephanie?"

Originally I'd planned on letting the drama play out just a bit more to let the rat bastard Rangoonie think he was going to be a very wealthy man. Considering this new twist, I knew I could work it so that there would be no warning. Then once these guys were caught, they might save their own necks by giving up the information on Gunner and his group.

Turning to Ranger, I said, "I can execute the plan so that you'll have them all Wednesday."

A slight movement of his head was the only indication that he'd responded. His gaze went around the table. "We'll start three shifts beginning now. Chan will be in charge of the second shift, with Erik, Rambo, Diaz, and Terminator. Rodriguez will be in charge of third shift, with Zero, Zip, Junior, and Binkie. Lester will be in charge of the day shift, with Manny, Ram, Red, and Hector. Bobby will be on call, and Tank and I will fill in where necessary, as well as help Stephanie with what she's planning."

Once again, I found myself frowning. "That's not a lot of manpower."

Ranger looked at me and said, "No. But we're better off not hiring some unknown and taking a chance that they're working with Gunner, giving the enemy a foot in the door."

"I can save you some work on searches." My gaze went to Rodriguez. "I set up my program into your system so anyone doing searches will be able to cut their work in half. It should only take an hour or two to train you on the system."

Rodriguez smiled. "Are you going to let me in on why you named it Rex?"

Giving a shrug, I told him, "I had a hamster named Rex, and he died the day I finished the program and filed for the patent. I didn't even realize that I'd written his name until I received the final paperwork. It just seemed fitting, so I never changed it."

His face turned serious. "I'm sorry about your hamster."

"Thanks."

There was a knock on the door, and Ranger said, "It's open."

The door opened, and Lula stood there with her hands on her hips. "Who decided to have a meeting and not invite me?"

I smiled at her and said, "If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't invited either."

She tilted her head so she was looking up at me. "You here though, ain't ya? So what's so important you had to go talking without me?"

Ranger looked around the table at the others, then said, "Dismissed." As they were filing out, he turned to Lula and said, "I'll be more than happy to fill you in on what we were talking about. Out of necessity, there will be times every so often when I meet with my men without you."

Lula smiled. "I was starting ta worry. 'Bout time you put me in my place. Just so you know, I don't got no problem with you not including me on every meeting you have, just as long as you tell me all of the important information. Stephanie says I have a Lucy complex and don't always listen to reason. You gotta get used to that happening. I don't plan to change for anybody."

Ranger gave a slight nod of his head. "Then we understand each other."


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

**Stephanie's POV**

It took a lot of finagling, but I managed to have everything in place like I'd told Ranger I would. It helped that he had Hector working with me. While I did all the behind-the-scenes stuff, Hector was my legs out on the streets. I had to admit that I'd been worried that I wouldn't be able to move fast enough to stay out of sight, but having Hector do the leg work was a bonus.

There was a sense of anticipation as I got ready. I was looking forward to paying Rangoonie back for what he'd done, not only to Lula and me but all the other people he'd scammed. The clothes I grabbed today were my kick-ass gear—black jeans that fit me like a glove, skin-tight black T-shirt that ended just above my jeans and showed just the hint of midriff, and black Doc Martins. My unruly hair was twisted up into a ponytail and secured with a black hair tie, and I made sure that everything I might possibly need was inside my bag before I headed out to the kitchen to meet the rest of the gang for breakfast. I'd traded my crutches in for a sleek black cane that doubled as a weapon.

Since the meeting a couple of days ago, the majority of Ranger's team had taken up residence in the apartments at RangeMan. Now it was just Ranger, Tank, Lula, and me living in the house. Lula had been able to get through the damage that Gunner had done to RangeMan, and we had started on a plan to get the business back up to peak performance. It was slow moving, mostly because our focus was on the sting that would be going down later this afternoon.

Ranger had arranged for the second shift to start at one p.m. so that we would have time to get into position before three. Both the day shift and third shift would be in on the takedown since we were expecting to get all five men as well as Rangoonie and whoever else might be there. Yesterday we'd gone over the timing and where each person would be placed. Now it was time to start the countdown to the dance.

The others were already in the kitchen when I got there. I swear my eyes rolled back in my head as I got a good whiff of the pastries sitting on the table. The smell of Boston Cream doughnuts had me moaning as I hurried my pace as much as possible.

Tank grinned. "Whoa, little girl. You're going to hurt yourself with a pace like that."

I smiled back at him as I slipped into a chair. "It's worth it if those are what I think they are."

Lula bobbed her head. "Boston Creams. I had my favorites as well—lemon meringue. Mmm was they good, all dozen of them."

I wasn't even surprised. I'd seen her wolf down two dozen one time when she'd already had a bucket of the colonel's extra-crispy chicken.

Reaching out, I opened the lid and saw two magnificent Boston Cream doughnuts left in the box. I helped myself to them and nearly had an orgasm with my first bite. My gaze met Ranger's, and the heat in his eyes added to the sensations I was already feeling. I had to mentally check myself to make sure I hadn't wet myself. The desire I felt was stronger than anything I'd ever felt before. It was so powerfully intense, I forgot what I was doing until Lula's strident words brought me back to the present.

"Hey, girl, you about done so as we can get to work?"

I felt my cheeks heat and quickly looked away from Ranger's gaze. After swallowing the bite that was in my mouth, I turned to Lula and said, "You got to enjoy all of_ your_ doughnuts. Just give me fifteen minutes to indulge in mine."

Lula grinned. "Well while you enjoy 'em, I think Tank and me should head on into the office so we can get to work." She turned to Tank and raised an eyebrow as she said, "What do you say, handsome? Shall we hit the vinyl?"

Tank's eyes widened in surprise. "Huh?"

Lula rolled her eyes at him and said, "The vinyl upholstery of the car, hot shot. If I was planning to go to bed with you, I'd tell you we were going to light the sheets on fire. After all, a big man like you, I'm thinking we gonna burn down the house when we get together."

I nearly choked on my doughnut as I started coughing. Ranger handed me a glass of water, and there was an unholy gleam in his eyes when I looked in his direction to thank him. He winked at me and then turned to Lula and Tank. "That might be a good idea if you take the SUV. I'll bring Stephanie in the Turbo."

Tank hurriedly stood, mumbling to himself as he did so, but it was just loud enough for me to be able to hear him say, "I say I take the Turbo and leave you with the crazy lady."

Lula slapped Tank's ass.

He turned to face her with a scowl on his face, and she was glaring right back. He folded his arms across his chest and demanded, "What was that for?"

"That was 'cause your taking notes on being a gentleman is all screwed up. You don't see Ranger getting upset and mumbling so people can't hear him, do ya? Why, I bet he gonna be a gentleman and hold Steph's chair for her when she gets up, and then he'll take hold a her arm and lead her to the car. I don't see you doing none of that romantic shit. What gives?"

Tank leaned slightly forward, his arms still crossed over his chest as he snarled, "I don't see you taking notes either, woman! I don't see Stephanie hitting Ranger and sitting on him all the time. Where's your taking notes?"

My eyes widened and I turned to Ranger, whispering, "Do you think it's safe, or should we sneak out now?"

He chuckled softly as he leaned over and declared, "Don't worry, Babe. I'll protect you."

Tank and Lula were still going at it when I finished my breakfast. I took my dishes to the sink, and after washing the sticky off my face and hands, I quickly dried them before turning to the arguing couple and asking, "Are you going to stand there arguing all day, or are we going to do some work?"

Lula's eyes widened as she turned to me and answered, "Huhn?"

As if realizing that she was still standing in the kitchen arguing with Tank, she turned and glared at him. "See what you done? You got me so hot and bothered I forgot all about work. Get your rear end in gear and let's get out of here."

"You're the one that started it. You're like a mama bear with her cub when you get a burr up your ass."

Lula fanned her face with her hand as her eyes glazed over. "We best get outta here before you go and make me wet my panties, big guy. Any more talk like that, and the only work we'll be doing is between the sheets."

Looking over at Ranger, I couldn't help but smile at the pained look on his face. Fortunately for both of us, the other two headed toward the garage. Even with the door closed, Lula's voice filtered through so that we could hear her asking, "What's up with you not getting my door, handsome? I thought we talked about them manners."

A low growl followed by a slamming door was the only response.

I turned to Ranger with a smile. "Now that's a conversation I could go a lifetime without repeating."

He chuckled. "We're in agreement there, Babe."

"Are you ready to go?"

He stood, and the two of us made our way out to the garage once he made sure the alarm was set and everything was locked up tight.

Once we were on our way, I started feeling a buzz of excitement. I knew there was a good chunk of time before we set the stung in motion later today, but the adrenaline was already pumping. Looking over at Ranger, I asked, "Will there be another meeting before the sting takes place?"

A slight nod of his head told me there would. As if he sensed that I needed the words, he briefly glanced my way as he placed his right hand on my thigh. "Yes. That's standard operating procedure when we do something like this that needs to be timed precisely."

I nodded. "Okay. Just a warning, I'm going to be a bit distracted today."

He glanced at me once again before he asked, "Why is that?"

I let out a self-conscience laugh. "Because I'm going to be imagining anything and everything that can go wrong and making plans for when it does."

He shook his head. "Maybe you shouldn't do anything that requires a lot of concentration, then, Babe."

I grinned. "No need to worry. I excel at multitasking."

His raised eyebrow was the only response I got.

Ranger pulled into his usual spot near the elevator when we reached RangeMan, and we headed up to five. He walked me to the office, but instead of leaving as he had every other morning, he joined me.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised to see a second desk in the room. I turned so that I was looking up at him and asked, "Why the change?"

He leaned down and gently kissed my forehead. "Lula needs some space so that she can do whatever it is she does. I've gone over what's acceptable and what's not; now she gets to make it work. While she's doing that, Tank and I will be working on our own projects that need taking care of."

I bit my lip, and Ranger growled. My eyes widened as his hand went to the back of my head and his head swooped down till his lips were covering mine. With infinite slowness, he let his tongue sweep over my lip, laving at the area that I'd bitten.

The sound of the cane clattering to the ground didn't even register, as all I could think about was how right his mouth felt on mine.

He pulled my lip between his, and the sensations surging through me had me wanting to rip his clothes from his body, just so I could get closer.

The sound of a throat clearing barely registered, but I was too caught up in what was happening to my body to care. An ear-piercing whistle sounded, and Ranger stilled.

I let out a sigh, knowing that his attention was going to be focused on other issues in a matter of seconds.

He pulled back, and we looked at each other for long seconds before he turned to the man waiting to be acknowledged.

Ducking into the office, I bent to retrieve my cane and made my way over to the comfortable chair. It wasn't till I was booting up my system that I saw Lester and Red in the doorway with Ranger. My gaze caught Red's, and my cheeks heated when she winked at me.

I gave her a finger wave and turned my attention to the screen in front of me. Something was bothering me about what Uncle Terry had said when he'd brought the medical equipment…about Dillard changing after he'd found out he had a son. I quickly logged on and started a new search. As I put in the information I was looking for, the conversation Ranger was having filtered through.

Lester sounded apologetic as he said, "I didn't think this could wait."

Ranger's voice was low, and I nearly missed what he said because of it. "What is it?"

"Gunner escaped from the prison hospital."

"Then we need to figure him as a wild card."

"I thought that's the way you'd want to play it. Hector's out hunting, but we're working at a disadvantage. "

At that exact moment, several pieces of information popped onto my screen and I swore.

A hand settled on my shoulder as Ranger asked me, "What's the matter?"

A quick glance up showed me that his gaze was on me and not the screen. I motioned to it and said, "I think I know what started Gunner thinking the way he does."

Our eyes met and held for several seconds, and then he looked at the screen. His words were even softer than they'd been before as he said, "Son of a bitch!"

Lester stepped forward. "What is it?"

Ranger shook his head. "We'll talk about it at the meeting. Just make sure that anyone that goes out today has backup."

"Will do."

A beeping told me that one of my other searches was complete, and I hit the icon that would open it so that I could see the information. My eyes widened as the new information popped onto the screen. "Shit! You need to rethink having anyone go out today."

Ranger leaned down behind me. "Where the hell did you dig this up from?"

I shook my head. "I've been adding data to the searches I've been running anytime a new character showed up. It seems like I finally had enough people that had enough in common for the program to link them together."

"Print this out so we can inform the rest of the group at the meeting."

I nodded and sent the information to the printer. A cold chill raced down my back, and I shivered.

Ranger's hand went to my shoulder again as he said, "What's wrong?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "I have a bad feeling in my stomach…like something is going to go wrong."

"Is this what you meant by you might be distracted today, thinking of all the way things could go wrong and planning for each eventuality?"

I sat back in the chair, letting out a deep sigh. "No. This is my spidey sense screaming at me that something is off." I looked up at him to see his reaction.

His eyes narrowed. "Can you pinpoint what it is that's giving you the feeling?"

My mind was racing with everything that had occurred over the past few days. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Whatever it was that was bothering me, at the moment, I didn't know what it was—just a vague feeling of impending doom. After several fruitless moments, I looked up at Ranger and shook my head. "I don't know…yet."

He frowned. "Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to add a couple people to the party this afternoon."

We got to work, and the rest of the morning seemed to fly by. One o'clock came, and Ranger stopped working, stood, and then held his hand out to me. "Are you ready for lunch, Babe?"

A laugh escaped. "Starving!"

I took his hand and let him pull me up, then reached for the cane and walked with him to the conference room, where we would be eating with the others. We would be spending the next hour over lunch discussing the coming operation.

The aroma of Mexican…or more precisely, Cuban food permeated the whole fifth floor. My mouth was watering, and my stomach let out an enormous roar.

Lester and Red joined us in time to hear, and Red's eyes widened in awe as Lester said, "Damn, Beautiful! That's some alarm system you have there."

My cheeks heated.

Red backhanded Lester.

"Hey! What was that for?"

Red's eyes narrowed as she looked at him. "Manners, Santos. Use them."

I smiled as I saw the playful way the two of them interacted.

The four of us made our way into the conference room, and sure enough, there were all sorts of dishes from the best Cuban restaurant in Miami. We filled our plates and took our seats. Over the next fifteen minutes, the rest of the group trickled in.

The food was delicious, and it was easy to see why they were considered the best. When I finished what was on my plate, I contemplated going for seconds but decided that I'd had enough. Sitting back in my seat, I listened to the conversation going on around me. At the moment, it was general chit-chat, but that would change at any moment.

As if my pushing my plate away was the sign Ranger had been waiting for, he looked around at the others and said, "Report."

Lula frowned as she said, "Report? Report what?"

Ranger flicked his gaze my way, and I could see the gleam in his eye. When he turned to Lula, there was no expression on his face as he said, "That's generally how I call a meeting to order."

Her eyes widened. "Oh! Well, I got nothin' ta report, on account I been locked in my…I mean Chan's office all morning setting up the payroll system and going over all the invoices someone's been sending me."

Tank's gaze moved so that he was looking at the ceiling, trying to appear innocent.

Lula's eyes narrowed. "Uhn-huhn. I knowed it was you, handsome. You just wait. I got your number." She turned to look around the table. "Now I know all of you is planning some kind of operation this afternoon, and if they's anything I can do ta help you, you just give a holler. Otherwise, I'm going back to the books."

Ranger glanced over at me, as if he was asking whether I wanted to include her or not.

"What we're planning is to take down Rangoonie and his thugs."

She paled and swayed in her seat.

Tank reached out and offered her a hand for support.

Lula swallowed hard and then straightened up. Her voice was hoarse as she asked, "What you want me to do?"

I bit my lip and winced. The poor thing had been getting a lot of abuse lately, and it was incredibly sore. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

She shook her head. "I'll never be ready, Steph. But this is something I gotta do. That Gorman character did some awful things to me, and it's time I paid him back."

Red asked, "What happened?"

Lula looked around the room at the people assembled there. The serious expression on her face told me this was going to be bad. Her chin wobbled slightly as she said, "He took me on a tour of that building of Rangoonie's." Her voice broke as she went on. "There was all kinds of stuff you'd find in one of them S and M rooms. He chained me to the ceiling and…"

The sound of glass shattering drew my gaze in Tank's direction. The glass that had been in his hand was in pieces. I had the stray thought that if he kept breaking glasses, there wouldn't be anything left for people to drink out of. I could only guess that I was focusing on that because the pain I was feeling that I'd been the one to leave her in that place in the first place was crippling. After a couple of seconds, I drew in my courage and turned back to face her.

Lula looked at me and her chin lifted. "Don't you be blaming yourself, Steph. I heard them talking with someone, and if you hadn't gone ta get the money, they were planning on giving us both ta him ta sell."

"_That's it!" _

Lula jumped, her eyes growing wide as she continued to look at me. "What?"

I turned to Ranger. "When we were at the Safari Park, there was a mention of Tyler and an arena. Before you showed up, Taylor—who was pretending to be Tyler—told Babs that she'd cost him a fortune. Also, Mary said that some of the venomous snakes had been disappearing, and Chandra said that Mary was never the same after spending time with Tyler. Mary actually said she'd rather take the snakes and gators." I turned to Lula. "When we went to feed the baby alligators, I got the impression that the place looked familiar."

Lula shook her head. "You're going a million miles a minute, and I can't keep up ta make sense of what you're saying."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that she was right. I was giving them a bunch of facts, but I wasn't tying them together. We had to hurry because the operation was going down within the hour and I had to make sure that everyone had the same information that I did. I took another deep breath as my mind processed everything and converted it into precise details that would make sense.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N:** The information about the tranquilizer gun and dart was taken from Wikipedia. A special thank you to Suzanne D. for your help with the diagnosis.

**Chapter 24**

**Stephanie's POV**

Everyone was looking at me when I opened my eyes and started at the beginning. "When Lula and I went to the meeting to close the deal on the property, I heard noises that I couldn't at that point identify." I paused so that I could take a drink of my Coke. "At the Safari Park, when we went with Steve and Lamont to feed the animals, the building that Lamont and I went into looked familiar. There was a door on the other side of the room that looked out of place at the time. From the distance and direction we traveled, it would be reasonable to assume that the building was actually part of Rangoonie's property."

Lula's eyes widened. "No shit?"

I nodded. "That, the reference to Tyler and the arena, what Chandra said about Mary never being the same after spending the day with Tyler, plus what you just told us about the room inside the building… If you add everything together with the fact that Rangoonie is working with Gunner…" I stopped. My hand shook as I reached for my Coke and took another drink. The conclusion I'd drawn from all of this was horrendous, but I knew I needed to voice it so that we would be ready if it were in fact true. I looked around the table before taking a deep breath and saying, "What if they are using the S and M room to torture their victims, and then to dispose of the bodies so that no one knows, they are feeding them to the alligators?"

Lula's reached for her drink, but her hand was shaking so badly she knocked it over.

Tank reached out and covered her hand with his as he spoke in a low tone that only she could hear.

She looked up at him, and there were tears in her eyes. She nodded and then turned to face me. Her voice was hoarse, and I could barely hear her as she said, "I think you're right, Steph. It was what Gorman said when he finished…that if you didn't get there soon with the money, they was going to let Old Nellie out ta eat. I thought he was making fun of me—you know, two-ton Nellie."

Spots swam in front of me, and then I felt a warm hand on my arm. I turned to Ranger, and he gently caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingers.

"What's wrong, Babe? You turned white as a sheet."

"Old Nellie was the name of the alligator in the shed where Lamont and I went to feed the babies." Cold chills raced down my spine as I realized just how right I was.

There was silence for several seconds while all of us took in this latest news.

I looked at Ranger. "Do you have someone exceptionally good with a rifle?"

His gaze flicked to the other side of the table, where Ram and Rodriguez were sitting. "What are you thinking?"

"I can mix up some tranquilizer darts for the alligators, but you'll need someone with precise firing skills to make it work. I could do it, but I don't know how many tries it would take me to get the dart in, and the misses would be rendered useless."

Ranger gave a slight nod. Without looking away from me, he asked, "Ram?"

Ram gave an answering nod. "Just tell me where I need to hit them, and I'll get it there. We have a tranquilizer gun. It was in with the inventory and was the only thing that was in supreme condition. What kind of tranquilizer will I be working with?"

I frowned. "Usually, they're essentially a ballistic syringe loaded with an immobilizing drug and hypodermic needle. I can make .50 caliber ones, and they'll be propelled from the gun by means of compressed gas. In flight, the dart will be stabilized by a tailpiece—a tuft of fibrous material—making it behave somewhat like a badminton shuttlecock. The same syringe design may be used interchangeably in certain blowguns. I can use a plain needle, but I think the collared needle would be better, as it has a barb-like circumferential ring that improves retention of the needle and syringe for recovery and to assure that the full dose is administered."

I was concentrating more on what I needed to do to prepare the doses and wasn't paying attention to exactly what I was saying. It just sort of came out as I thought it as I continued, "On impact with the animal, the momentum of a steel ball at the rear of the dart pushes the syringe plunger and injects the dose of drug into the animal, which will cause torpor and prostration within minutes. Because of the power of the drugs, we have to move quickly to move the animals somewhere so it would be safe for us to move around. Ideally we'd have someone who could monitor the vital signs, protect its eyes and ears, and inject and antidote if necessary. Many large animals are acutely sensitive to stress and can easily die without careful treatment; in order to counter stress in targeted animals, the gun is quiet, and there is usually a valve on the gun to control the dart velocity."

A dry, "Is that all?" had me looking up to see Ram looking at me as if I'd magically appeared from another planet.

I winced. "I didn't mean to say all of that out loud."

Ram shook his head as he said, "I'm just floored that you know all of that."

I glanced at Ranger, and he had a raised eyebrow. "Something you want to tell us, Babe?"

Lula chuckled. "Stephanie is what you might call one of them geniuses. Her numbers were off the charts when we did all those tests they do in schools, so the principal called in a specialist, who gave her the adult IQ test. You know all those people who say they got an IQ of well over two hundred? Not likely. There had never been a score of two hundred, let alone over that. At least not till Stephanie took the test in first grade."

I tried to wave Lula off, but she was ignoring me. As the others turned to look at me, I felt my cheeks flush as I rolled my eyes.

Ranger reached out and lifted my chin with his finger. "No wonder you were able to get around my system."

I shrugged. "I also have a photographic memory, although a lot of people call it an eidetic memory."

Bobby asked, "Why did you qualify that it was the adult IQ test?"

Lula shook her head as she said, "I got no way to explain it. I just know they stressed that part."

Everyone's eyes turned to me. I grimaced before saying, "The adult test uses thirteen dimensions of intelligence—analytical, spatial, logical, memory, musical, linguistic, philosophical, moral, spiritual, interpersonal, intra-personal, bodily, and naturalist—to determine intelligence so it's more accurate."

Red whistled. "And you scored two hundred?"

I nodded. "Actually, according to Rena, the assistant, I scored two hundred and three. But the doctor didn't want anyone accusing him of manufacturing the score, so he shaved three points off."

She grinned. "Damn!"

I shifted in my seat.

As if he sensed that I was uncomfortable with the attention directed my way, with one look, Ranger directed everyone's attention to the operation that we were going to put into effect in just a short time. He said, "Let's go over this once more."

Lula and I jumped as all the others in the room said, "Yo!"

Tank chuckled. "You two are a bit jumpy, aren't you?"

Lula swatted him with the back of her hand. "You'd be jumpy too if a bunch of people shouted at you unexpectedly."

He glared at her as he said, "We didn't shout."

She grunted.

I sat forward and pulled the schematic in front of me. After scanning it briefly, I pointed to an area. "There. That's where the alligators are. The thing is, now that we think they're using them, there's no guarantee they're all in the same place." A thought came to me, and I turned to grab my bag. I dug around until I came up with a card and then pulled out my phone to make a call.

It was answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Lamont?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is Stephanie. I need your help."

There was a chuckle on the other end. "You saved my life. Just name it."

"I need to know if there are any other alligators that you feed around Old Nellie's location."

There was a pause. "Please tell me you aren't planning to go back there."

I looked around the table, knowing that if I told him what was going on, I chanced him telling someone else, but I had to trust my gut on this, and my spidey senses were telling me that I could trust him. "You know the building where Old Nellie was? It's part of another property, and I think the owner is using the gators as his garbage detail."

There was swearing on the other end of the line. "You're going to need my help. There are five docking areas in that area. Old Nellie is nothing compared to Brutus and the other males."

"I'm making the tranquilizer darts now."

"That's a start. But you'll still need me to get you in close enough to take them out."

Hesitating, I asked, "What about your leg? Will you be mobile enough?"

"I'll handle my end, don't you worry about that."

I looked at Ranger as I said, "Let me put you on speaker. There's a group working with me." I hit Speaker and set the phone on the table. "Can you still hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you fine."

Erik's eyes widened. "Lamont Truman? Is that you?"

"Erik? What the hell are you doing in Miami? Last I heard, you were living in Trenton, New Jersey."

"Yeah, well, there was a business here that needed some redecorating done."

Lamont laughed. "I'll bet you did a bang-up job. Did anyone get tossed out a third-floor window this time?"

Erik grimaced as Tank glared at him. "Uh…no, no one got tossed out a window, but we had a lot of cleanup to do."

Tank grumbled. "This ain't no reunion. We got a job to do."

Lamont asked, "Erik, you know I can pull my weight, even with a broken leg. How about you put in a good word for me with Stephanie?"

"Why Stephanie?"

"Isn't she the one in charge?"

My eyes widened. "Why would you think I was in charge?"

Lamont laughed. "You forget so soon? Lady, I watched what you did with that swamp full of gators. After all, you saved my life."

I could feel the others looking at me.

Ranger raised an eyebrow and said, "Erik?"

The other man nodded. "Lamont was in my unit. He's a good soldier."

After a couple of seconds, Ranger gave a slight nod. "All right. Ram, you and Erik will take Truman with you to sedate the gators." He turned to look over the rest of the group. "Chan, you'll cover everything on this end with Rambo, Diaz, and Terminator. Rodriguez, you'll take, Zip, Zero, Junior, and Binkie with you and come in from the rear once the threat has been taken out by Ram and his team. Hector will be Stephanie's shadow, and Red, I want you with Lula. Manny, Lester, Bobby, Tank…you're with me."

Lamont asked, "Where should I meet you?"

My eyes widened as all eyes looked to me. I turned to Ranger, and there was an amused look on his face.

He leaned forward and winked. "Go ahead, Babe. What would you suggest?"

Images flashed through my mind at breakneck speed. Although there was an element of danger going this way, it would give Ram easier access. "Lamont, can you get one of the airboats from the Safari Park?"

The looks on everyone's faces told me that they'd guessed where I was going with this.

Lamont chuckled. "You bet I can. Erik, can you pick me up? We can go to the park and get the boat, and then we can meet the rest of the group coming with us at the bayou."

Another thought occurred to me, and I asked, "Lamont, have you seen any signs that might indicate that Tyler is at the park?"

"Now that you mention it…"

"Tell me."

"Tyler's car has been showing up at intervals. It's a shiny, candy-apple red MX-5 MIATA. Why?"

Ranger laid his hand on my arm. "Stephanie?"

I looked up at him. "I saw a flash of something shiny the day you and Tank saved us at the park. It was red, but I'm not a car buff so I didn't know what kind of make or model it was. If Tyler is still around at the park, you guys will need to be careful going that route."

Lamont spoke up, saying, "It'll work if Erik comes in with me."

Looking at Erik, I could see why he might think that. With his blond hair and blue eyes, he was the ideal of what a white Anglo Saxon should look like according to the group we were going up against. I nodded. "I think you're right. There are a couple of the other guys who would fit in, but I agree that the fewer people going in there will work better."

Erik stood. "I'm on my way now."

With that, he was out the door, and the rest of us continued discussing how the plan would take shape. When we were done, we suited up and headed out.

Lula and Tank rode with us, while Lester, Red, and Hector were behind us. I wasn't sure who was in the rest of the shiny black SUVs, but we looked like a caravan going down the road. I wasn't concerned that Rangoonie and his thugs would see us coming and run. They'd be too busy chasing their tails trying to figure out who'd scammed them. Of course, by the end of the day, they would know exactly who was behind their loss of fortune.

I opened up the laptop and hacked into the security feed. They were all there just sitting around the table. Paddy Gorman was smiling smugly at the screen.

I turned up the audio so that we could hear what they were saying.

"Hey, Vinnie, you got everything set with Gunner to take this guy out after you take his money?"

Rangoonie smiled. "He won't know what hit him. His company will be bankrupt, and it will look like he absconded with all of the funds. The authorities will look for him, but thanks to Brutus and the other old boys in the back, they'll never find this character."

Don Jenks—or Nathan Helms, as he was listed in the RangeMan file—chuckled. "I'd love to see your uncle's face when he finds out that you sold him down the river." He paused and then said, "Hey, that reminds me… What kind of insurance do we have that Gunner won't turn on us?"

Vinnie grinned. "He still needs us to discredit that Cuban bastard, Manoso."

Stan Leasing—better known as John Lathem—asked, "What does Gunner have against Manoso anyway? I mean, besides the obvious?"

Vinnie shook his head. "I only asked the one time, and he flew into a rage. Something about a life being ruined because Manoso had chosen to save a kid instead of getting away. Gunner's a scary bastard at the best of times, but he really scared the shit out of me when he was ranting."

I looked over at Ranger and could swear that he seemed paler than usual. Keeping my voice soft, I asked, "Do you know what he's talking about?"

Without taking his eyes from the road, a tiny nod of his head indicated that he did indeed know what Rangoonie was referring to. My attention returned to the screen as Rangoonie went on to say, "I never brought the subject up again."

Dave Mosely—or Graham Neeley, according to the file—said, "I don't know how he survived that beating he got when he tried to take over RangeMan. When we went to break him out of the hospital, he was in bad shape. In many ways, he seems infinitely worse now than he was before. It's like he survived with the sole purpose to take Manoso out."

Rangoonie nodded. "It's the steroids he's been taking."

Although I continued to listen, my mind started racing over everything I knew about steroids. When I had my answer, I turned to Ranger and asked, "Can Bobby get his hands on drugs, or does he have to go through a doctor?"

Ranger glanced at me for a fraction of a second before returning his eyes to the road. "He can write scripts. Why?"

I wrote down a prescription and handed it to Ranger. "We need this."

He took the paper from me and looked at what I'd written. Then he pulled over to the side of the road. When the vehicles behind us stopped, he climbed out and walked back to the last SUV.

Tank's voice was low as he asked, "What kind of prescription you need?"

I turned around so that I was looking at Tank. "Gunner's been beefing up with steroids, and from what these guys are describing, it's possible that he's suffering from steroid-induced psychosis. If he is, then it would be possible for him to take out a whole unit of highly trained men."

Tank frowned. "So the prescription is to sedate him?"

I nodded. Pulling out my phone, I dialed Lamont's number and asked him to give Erik the phone. I relayed the message I needed to get to them and then disconnected the call. I'd just placed my phone back in my bag when Ranger rejoined us.

He climbed into the Cayenne and sat there for a minute before he put his seat belt on. After putting the vehicle in gear, he pulled out into traffic. It was a couple of minutes more before he asked, "So you think Gunner might be suffering from psychosis brought on by steroids?"

I wasn't surprised by his question. "It's possible."

"Bobby called the prescription in, and they're going to pick it up at a pharmacy about ten minutes from the rendezvous site."

It took us another twenty minutes to reach our destination. The SUVs were parked in an old barn-like structure about three minutes away from where we were going. We would need to go the rest of the way on foot. Tank and Lester flanked Ranger, and Lula and I were behind them with Red flanking Lula and Hector on my side. I was able to move faster with the cane, but the others slowed their approach to accommodate my slower pace.

We made it to the front door, and the cry of outrage coming from inside was our cue to enter. The door went down, and we were inside and moving for cover before Rangoonie and his men even registered that we were inside.

I knew the exact moment when he registered just who I was. The look of rage as he screamed, "_You_!" and charged me was nothing more than what I'd expected.

On the other hand, the man stepping into the room with a loaded Uzi _wasn't_ something that we'd expected. The look in his eyes left me with the impression that the new arrival wasn't operating on the same level that we were, though. I took a guess and figured that Gunner had just joined the party, and from the look of him, he'd left his sanity as well as his humanity behind.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

**Ram's POV**

We made the rendezvous and joined Erik and his friend on the air boat. This wasn't my first choice for transportation, but it was the only way to get into the area we needed to be. The swamp we were moving through brought back too many memories of times I wanted to forget. I was aware of Lamont and Erik talking softly, but all my concentration was on keeping the monsters at bay while I mentally prepared myself for the coming task.

Lamont made sure to tell us that we needed to keep every part of our body on the airboat at all times, and seeing the gators out there, I knew that was a smart idea. As we traveled, he told us the story of how Stephanie had gotten them through the blood-free zone and back to the park with her ingenuity. I had to admit, I was very impressed.

When we neared our destination, Lamont killed the motor and took us in silently. I was a bit worried about his ability to move around with his broken leg, but he proved the axiom that once a soldier, always a soldier. He had a cane that he was using—similar to the one Stephanie was using today—and my guess was that it had more to it than met the eye.

We moved quickly to where we needed to be. There was one adult female with several juveniles. I looked at Lamont and asked, "Once the female is down, is there any chance the young will pose a problem?"

Lamont shook his head. "No. They're too young. If we were doing this three or four weeks from now, that would be a different matter altogether."

I nodded, and Lamont opened the door.

There was a growling, and I fired. Lamont checked his watch, and at the precise moment the gator stopped thrashing around, he nodded and said, "She's down."

Binkie stepped forward, hesitating momentarily at the door to ask, "You're sure the babies won't pose a problem?"

Lamont nodded. "They can't get out of their pen yet. Like I said, another three weeks or so, and it would be a different story."

Binkie grimaced. "Okay. But if I get bit, it's going to royally mess up my day."

He moved through the door with the blanket he was going to use to put over the gator's head, and the three of us hurried back to the boat so we could take care of the males. We repeated the scenario three more times, leaving a man in place each time till just the three of us and Rodriguez were left.

When we got back to the airboat, Lamont turned to us and said, "Now we just have Brutus to take care of."

I nodded. "Let's get to it."

Following the same routine, we moved into position. This time, all of us would be going through that door once I'd taken Brutus out. When Lamont opened the door, I about shit a brick. Brutus was aptly named. He had to weigh in at over two thousand pounds and was between sixteen and nineteen feet long. I'd never seen a gator that big, and this one looked like he'd gotten up on the wrong side of the bed and was starving to boot.

Lifting the rifle into position, I took my shot, but the damn dart bounced off.

Brutus's tail swished and he moved slightly forward, his eyes fixed on us.

Rodriguez and Erik had their weapons out and trained on the gator while I hurried to reload.

I lifted the rifle once again and made sure I had a good aim before squeezing the trigger.

Once again, the dart bounced off the bastard, and I could swear the beast smiled as he took another step forward.

I swore as I reloaded. I had just gotten the dart in the chamber when Lamont's phone went off. The Gator turned to him, and I fired. The dart hit home. Brutus turned back to me, and I could swear his eyes glowed red. He turned and swished his tail in my direction. I had to do some fancy footwork to stay out of his path, and then I loaded another dart into the chamber.

Lifting the rifle once again, I took aim. Not taking my eyes off my target, I said, "I need someone to draw him out."

Rodriguez took a step forward, and Brutus moved his way.

I fired, and the dart hit pay dirt.

Brutus went down and started convulsing.

Lamont swore. "That's not good."

It was Erik who asked, "Why's that?"

"Gators can't handle stress. It's my guess that the last shot went into the brain and added to the stress the gator's under. It caused him to go into convulsions. Two things can happen. Either he'll die—and because of his diet, that might be a necessary thing anyway—or when he comes out of it, he'll be like a killing machine."

We looked at each other. I was just fine with letting the creature die, but I knew we couldn't take the chance of it coming out of this and turning into a killing machine. "What do you recommend?"

"Do you have any duct tape? We can tape his mouth shut and then cover him with a blanket."

Rodriguez turned and hurried back to the airboat. He was back in less than a minute with a roll of duct tape and asked, "What do I do?"

Rodriguez moved into place, and as Lamont instructed him, he taped the gator's mouth shut and then placed the solar blanket over Brutus's head so his eyes were covered. Once he was done, he looked up at me and nodded.

I looked at the others and said, "All right. Let's go."

The four of us moved through the back of the building until we'd reached the main part of the building. There was gunfire on the other side, and from the sound of it, someone had possession of an Uzi.

There were two doors in the room that we were in. Erik moved to the door that we figured would give us access to the main part of the building, but when he turned the handle, it was obvious that the door was locked. A small window to the side gave us a limited view of what was on the other side.

Lamont was closest, so he looked through and started swearing as he backed away as quickly as he could. "Don't open that one."

Erik stopped trying to get the door opened, and we all turned to look at Lamont.

He shook his head. "There was talk about several of the poisonous species of snakes coming up missing from the snake swamp. From the looks of it, they're in that room."

Just then, my phone started vibrating, and I pulled it from my utility belt to answer. "Yo."

"Binkie here. I'm on the other side of the main room, but the only way to get to the other side is through a room filled with snakes. Based on memory of incidents when I was growing up, I'd say they're cottonmouths."

I looked at the three men in front of me. "We have the same thing here. We need to get to through there so we can help the others. Someone over there has an Uzi."

"Yeah, I heard it too. How many of them dart things you got left?"

I smiled wryly, even though there was no way Binkie could see me. "Not enough."

Lamont shuddered. "At one point, most of us at the park have had to work the snake swamp. They use a stun-stick to temporarily stun the snakes so that they can be safely handled."

My eyes narrowed. I went forward to the window and did my best to judge the room we needed to get through. It was maybe two feet wide but ran the length of the building. It was my guess that all of us were on the wrong side looking through. A scream from the main part of the building decided the matter for us.

I added the rest of the team to the call and said, "Use your stun guns! We need to get through there. Move fast and watch out."

At my nod, Erik broke down the door, and we went in fast. Although my attention was focused on the snakes slithering toward us, I was able to determine that the other guys were also in here with us, and like us, they were stunning as many of the snakes as they could reach. I motioned to the main door. Binkie got there first and used his size fourteens to kick the door open.

Our guns were in our hands when we moved through and scanned the room, I could see Gunner standing there with the Uzi, and it was obvious he'd been hit a couple of times. The men we'd come to take down were on the ground but couldn't be counted out. Ranger was on the ground and looked like he'd taken a bullet in the thigh, and Lula was tying a cloth around Tank's upper arm.

Stephanie was on the ground behind Ranger, but she was leaning over him with a Glock in her hands pointed at Gunner. Red was in a similar position over Lester, who looked like he was out, but I detected a subtle rise and fall of his chest to indicate that he was still alive. Hector was standing facing Gunner, and the fierce look on his face spelled trouble for someone. Manny was off to one side on the ground, and from the spot I was in, there was no way to tell if he was still breathing.

Gunner turned in our direction, and his finger tightened on the trigger.

I raised my weapon and started firing a split second before Gunner, but the man didn't go down. He just stood there taking hit after hit. We ceased fire, and I saw Bobby sneaking up from behind Gunner. When he was close enough, Binkie and Junior rushed Gunner from either side and took him to the ground so that Bobby could inject him with whatever was in the syringe he was holding.

They weren't having any luck in holding him down, though, so the rest of us joined in to help out. Unfortunately, we forgot all about the cottonmouths that we'd let loose when we came into the room.

Red's swearing was the first indication that we had more problems than keeping Gunner down so that Brown could stab him with a needle.

I turned briefly and saw several of the slippery bastards making their way into the room.

**Stephanie's POV**

The minute I'd seen Gunner with the Uzi, I'd known we were in trouble. He'd been monitoring the account, and when it crashed, he'd come to take out Rangoonie and his group because they'd crossed over into being more of a hindrance than a help. It was our bad luck to be there at the same time that he showed up. The man had gone into a rage when he'd seen Ranger, and both sides had opened fire.

Rangoonie and his group had been the first ones to go down. Ranger and the rest of the guys had gotten in some shots, but Gunner was like a runaway locomotive, and there was no stopping him. How the man was still alive, when I knew for certain he'd taken no less than five bullets, was miraculous.

Gunner screamed in rage and then started shooting haphazardly.

Ranger dove, taking me down and covering me with his body.

I actually felt the impact of the bullet going into his thigh and rolled him so that our positions were reversed and I was leaning over him with his Glock pointed at Gunner. I had enough time to see that Red was covering Lester and Lula was tending to Tank before the rest of the team entered from the back.

When Red screamed, I glanced in her direction to see her gaze was fixated on something slithering across the floor. My eyes widened as I realized what it was. I quickly searched the area. An idea came to me, and I grabbed Ranger's stun gun and the night stick that was on his utility belt. Quickly looking around for something to secure the two together, I saw a roll of duct tape on Rodriguez's belt.

"Rodriguez!"

He turned in my direction.

"I need the duct tape."

He freed one hand to grab the roll and tossed it in my direction. The throw was perfectly executed, and the roll fell into my hands. I quickly wrapped the tape around the stun gun and stick and then taped the trigger so it was left in the "on" position.

I went to stand, and Ranger laid his hand on my arm. "It's not safe yet, Babe."

I handed him back his weapon and told him, "I don't have a choice. Those cottonmouths don't need a reason to strike. They're already agitated because of the guys coming through the back."

He tried to stand and grimaced.

I laid my hand on his arm. "I've done this before, remember? I know what I'm doing."

He nodded. "All right, Babe. I've got your back."

I nodded, and then as Ranger turned his weapon so it was trained on Gunner, I stood and using my cane to help me move around, I went to work knocking out the snakes. I'd gotten three when I realized Lula was beside me, picking up the inert snakes and placing them in a sack that she must have found somewhere.

It was as Lula was putting the last snake in the bag that I turned to see how the guys were doing in sedating Gunner. There were seven guys on him, and he was thrashing around and tossing them around like they were rag-dolls. Bobby was trying to give him the dose that would knock him out but couldn't get a clean shot. Due to the steroid-induced psychosis that Gunner was suffering from, his strength was incredibly magnified.

I handed the stun gun to Lula and made my way over to the group on top of Gunner.

Hector moved to cut me off. "No, it's not safe."

I grinned. "I have an idea."

"You tell me. I do this."

I shook my head. "It's not something I can tell you how to do. I'm not even sure myself how I do it."

Hector nodded, and as I moved forward, he took up a protective position beside me.

I skirted around the mound of people on the floor till I was at Gunner's head. I knelt down on the floor and inched forward until I was within touching distance.

Gunner jerked his head in my direction, and the look of rage on his face was a bit daunting. I did the best I could to ignore him and reached out and pinched the area at the back of his neck, putting as much pressure as I was able to without killing him.

Gunner slowly stopped fighting and moving around until his eyes rolled back in his head and he lost consciousness.

Bobby shook his head. "I guess I won't need this."

I turned around to face him. "Like hell you don't. Give him the damn shot before he wakes up!"

Bobby frowned, and instead of waiting for him to understand the urgent need, I grabbed the syringe, making sure not to stick myself, and administered the shot just before Gunner started moving around, as if he were starting to come around.

Once again, he went motionless.

I took a deep breath before turning to look at the guys. "You have, at most, twenty minutes to get him secured."

Bobby shook his head. "There was enough in there to knock him out for a couple of hours."

Rodriguez chuckled wryly. "If you don't mind, Bobby, I'd rather go with her estimate."

By the time they had Gunner secured, the ambulances and police had arrived. Manny was in the worst condition. He'd been shot in the abdomen and had lost a lot of blood. He would be going into surgery as soon as they got him to the hospital. Although both Tank and Ranger would require surgery to remove their bullets, neither one of them were in immediate danger. Lester had a flesh wound and probable concussion, so he too would be going to the hospital.

Rangoonie and his group would be taken to the prison hospital and tended to there. Although all of them were expected to make it, they would be facing numerous charges, and their chances of seeing freedom in the near future didn't look good. The proof of what they'd been doing was scattered throughout the room, plus the fact that they'd had poisonous snakes on premises, as well as dangerous alligators, meant the charges against them were mounting considerably.

As for Gunner, he was being taken to a high-security prison, where he would receive treatment.

I had a bad feeling in my stomach as I watched Ranger being loaded into the ambulance. I moved forward. "I'm going with him."

The look exchanged between the two paramedics made the feeling in my gut worse. Right now, my spidey senses were screaming at me. I turned, looking frantically around.

Ram stepped up beside me and asked, "What's the matter?"

"I have a hinky feeling that something is very wrong here."

His eyes narrowed.

The EMT went to close the doors, but Ram stepped forward and stopped them. "What hospital are you taking them to?"

"Mount Sinai."

Ram nodded. "We aren't from around here. What's the address?"

He rattled off an address on NW Twelfth Avenue.

The feeling in my stomach got even worse. I turned to Ram and shook my head.

He narrowed his eyes as he asked, "What?"

"It's on Alton Road."

Ram climbed into the back of the ambulance and then held out his hand to assist me into the back.

"You can't…"

Ram turned to him with a pissed-off look. "That's my boss. He dies, and I'm going to hold you personally responsible. Understand?"

The other man nodded.

When he closed the doors, Ranger looked up at us with a frown. "What's going on?"

Ram shook his head. "We're following one of Stephanie's hunches."

Ranger grinned. "You're full of surprises, Babe. What hunch are you working on now?"

I shook my head. "There's something about the way they look at you guys that's…off."

Ranger shook his head. "There are too many people displaying their dislike of anyone who isn't white. Miami has never been like this before. With the large numbers of varying races, it seems odd that a group like the Aryan Nation would set up camp here."

"But what if Gunner invited them in? If he assured them that he had a security company in his pocket and they could target select people…maybe even let them in on the secret of Rangoonie's building, they might have decided to send a group."

The back doors opened again and one of the EMTs climbed inside. He seemed to be extremely upset as he closed the doors and turned to face us. "Apparently I've been relegated to the back. Seems one of your team is insisting on sitting in front with the driver."

The topsy-turvy feeling in my stomach was settling down. I glanced over to Ram and asked, "Are they traveling with Tank, Manny, and Lester as well?"

He gave a single nod. "The minute I climbed into the ambulance, it was a sign for them to follow suit with the rest of our guys."

I smiled. For the first time, I was feeling like this might come out okay after all.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

**Stephanie's POV**

When we arrived at the hospital, Ram made sure that the EMTs didn't move faster than I was capable of so that I could hold Ranger's hand with my left while I used the cane to help me maneuver my way into the emergency room. Bobby had given Ranger a shot before the ambulances had arrived. At the moment he was out, but from the grip he had on my hand, I got the distinct impression that if someone tried to separate us, he'd wake up and they'd be in serious trouble. From the hubbub going on, the hospital had been alerted to our arrival and everyone had jumped immediately into action.

There had been one point during the ambulance ride when my stomach had been churning so badly I thought I was going to be physically ill, but it passed soon enough, and then everything seemed fine. As soon as I made sure Ranger and the others were all right, I planned on mapping out the longitude and latitude of where we'd been at that precise moment that I'd felt so sick and then seeing what was there.

The nurse—Holly was the name on her ID badge—stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry, but you'll need to remain in the waiting room."

I could have mentally kissed Ram for engineering a reason for me to stay with Ranger when he said, "Miss Plum was hurt when she fell. The only way I could get her to agree to be seen was promising her she could stay with her fiancé."

The look on the Holly's face softened as she nodded. "All right. I'm probably breaking about a dozen rules…but go ahead."

The smile I gave her was genuine as I said, "Thank you so much."

When Ram went to join us, Holly held up her hand to stop him.

Before she could say anything, Ram took out his wallet and showed her his RangeMan ID. "I'm Mr. Manoso and Miss Plum's bodyguard. There are other members of my team already here or on their way who will also have bodyguards. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am, but it's necessary that we be allowed to stay with our charges."

Holly's eyes widened. "I'm not sure that I'm allowed to do that."

Just then, a gravelly voice called out, "Girlie? Is that you?"

I turned to see Alexander Ramos and his entourage heading my way. I smiled wanly and said, "Hello, Mr. Ramos. What brings you here?"

Alexander glared at the man beside him. "Indigestion. Some people overreacted and had everyone thinking it was a heart attack. They had me hooked up to a heart monitor and the whole nine yards before I could talk sense to the doctor. He just released me, and as my companion here was wheeling me out, I saw you come in. What happened?"

My chin started to quiver, and I had a feeling that reaction was setting in. Lifting my head, my eyes burning with the tears that I refused to let fall, I said, "We had an altercation with your nephew and his associates. They formed an alliance with an ex-employee of Ranger's."

Alexander's expression turned fierce. "Vinnie caused you to be hurt?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could say anything, he took hold of my hand that was covered with blood. I shook my head. My voice was shaky as I told him, "I'm not hurt. That's Ranger's blood." I had to grit my teeth to stop the quivering of my chin.

Alexander reached out a hand and gently touched my cheek.

It was then that I became aware of the tears running down my face.

Alexander growled. "There's more than physical pain, girlie. Don't you worry… That little weasel is in for a rude awakening."

My hand went to Alexander's forearm. "Vinnie was planning to sell you down the river. He's been supplying the Aryan Nation groups in this area with arms."

If I'd thought he looked fierce before, it was nothing compared to his look now. He scowled. "Tell me."

The orderly started to push Ranger's gurney, and I looked at Alexander.

He grinned. "Come on, girlie. Let's get you and your young man settled."

I gave him a relieved look as we walked along with Ranger. Once we got settled into one of the examination rooms, I realized that the nurse who'd been going to ban Ram from joining us had not only let all of us come back, but she hadn't said anything to Alexander or the intimidating man standing beside him. I leaned over and whispered, "How did you do it?"

He chuckled. "It helps when you practically own half the hospital. Now tell me what happened."

Over the next five minutes while we waited for the doctor, I told him everything. When I finished talking, Alexander looked up at the man standing beside him. There was some kind of silent communication between the two, and then the man disappeared.

My eyes narrowed as I leaned over and whispered, "What just happened?"

Alexander chuckled. "Don't worry. Henry will make sure to explain things to Vinnie."

Although he was smiling, the look of icy rage in his eyes told me Vinnie was in more trouble than he could possibly have foreseen. At that moment, my attention was drawn to the doctor who walked into the cubicle.

He was a good-looking man in his mid-thirties with an easy-going manner. He smiled as he held his hand out to me. "I'm Dr. Mark Thaddius, better known as Dr. Thad." He turned to check out Ranger's leg, and suddenly, Ranger's hand shot out and grabbed the man's wrist as his eyes slowly opened.

I took a deep, calming breath and placed my hand on Ranger's forearm. "It's all right, Ranger. The doctor is going to look at your leg."

Ranger turned his hand palm up as he looked at me, and I placed my hand back in his. He seemed to settle right away.

The curtain parted, and Bobby stepped into the room.

Dr. Thad turned. There was a frown on his face, as if he was going to say something, but the moment he saw Bobby, he was all smiles. "What are you doing here, Brown?"

Bobby nodded in acknowledgement. "That's my boss. I came to make sure you treat him right."

Thad turned to look at Ranger, his eyes widening. "What does the other guy look like?"

Bobby shook his head. "He took a total of seven bullets, and we had to knock him out with a drug. Our best guess is that he's suffering from steroid-induced psychosis."

Thad whistled. "We're seeing more and more of that. Especially with ex-military types who join certain groups that are trying to get a toe-hold on Miami." His voice had filled with disdain as he said that last part.

My eyes widened as a thought occurred to me. I didn't want to delay Ranger getting into surgery, so I kept quiet, figuring I could ask the questions that had popped up once I knew Ranger was going to be all right.

Thad looked at Bobby with a question in his eyes as he asked, "Are you going to be assisting?"

Bobby nodded. "I'd like to, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. I'd be glad to have you. It'll be like old times."

Thad turned my way and winked. "Bobby and I were medics in the Rangers. There were several times when we worked triage together."

Bobby turned to us, his gaze going to Ram. "If you'd like, all of the guys are going to the Omega wing. Manny's already there, and so are Tank and Lester."

Ram gave a brief nod and placed his hand on my back. "Come on, Stephanie. I'll show you where they'll be bringing Ranger just as soon as he's out of surgery."

I leaned over Ranger and whispered, "You'd better come through with flying colors, or you'll be in big trouble."

The corner of his mouth lifted in a semblance of a smile. "I'll be fine, Babe."

I leaned down to kiss him and then slowly followed Ram from the room. It wasn't until we reached the door leading to the Omega Wing that I realized Alexander was with us. Ram looked undecided, and I had a hunch he wasn't sure Ranger would want the old man in this section of the hospital.

I held out my hand. "Thank you very much, Mr. Ramos. I greatly appreciate your taking time to make sure that we were all right. Considering your own health scare, maybe you might want to go home and relax for a while."

He grinned the way a shark would before he got ready to take a bite out of something juicy. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily, girlie." He motioned to the door. "We have an enemy in common. Vinnie doesn't have the backbone to go against me. If he was willing to try, there must be someone pretty powerful pulling the strings."

Once again, my stomach felt like it was on a rollercoaster. I turned to Ram. "I think he needs to come inside with us."

Ram nodded. Without a word, he opened the door and held it for us to enter.

The mood when we entered the room shifted suddenly, and looking around at the others, it was a safe bet that Alexander's appearance was solely responsible. I held up a hand. "Alexander is here with an offer to help, and I think we need to accept it." I turned my gaze to Tank, knowing he was the one I needed to convince. "I have a bad feeling this isn't over. Alexander brought up a valid point. Vinnie might be willing to scam regular people, but for him to be willing to go against his own uncle would be committing suicide unless he was more afraid of the person pulling the strings."

Tank's face was devoid of expression as his gaze met mine. "I'm listening."

I nodded and moved slowly forward. "I need a computer. On the way here, there was a point when I felt like I was going to get sick. I can pinpoint the longitude and latitude so that we can see what's there. I'm guessing that's where this group in hiding." I turned to Ram and continued, "I'm also betting that if you guys hadn't insisted on going with the ambulances, Ranger and the rest of the guys who were injured wouldn't have survived the day."

Tank grunted. "You think it was their intention to take us to that place and kill us?"

I nodded. "Yes. And I think they would have done it in a very public way. I think you guys were their ticket to the big time. And I don't think the fact that this didn't work for them will stop them from bringing the fight to you here. They have the EMTs to help them get in. If they dress up like hospital workers, we'll have no way of telling them from the regular workers."

There was silence for a moment or two, and then Tank asked, "What are you suggesting?"

I bit my bottom lip and winced at the sting of pain.

Hector handed me a laptop.

I sat down on the unoccupied bed and put the laptop on the tray. It didn't take me long to log in, and then I inputted the data and started the search. In no time, the location popped up on screen, and I swore.

Tank's voice boomed as he asked, "What?"

I turned the laptop so that they could see what was at the location that I'd pinpointed.

Alexander was the first to speak. "Why would they be setting up camp at Coast Guard headquarters?"

In my mind, I heard my father's voice speaking about an awards ceremony coming up in Miami involving the Coast Guard. Quickly turning the laptop around, I started typing in everything I remembered hearing and then pressed the search button. Ten pictures popped up on the screen, and I once again turned it so that the others could see. "I think we're going to need more help on this one."

Tank swore.

I let out a sigh. "It gets worse. I think they've created more people like Gunner."

I pulled my phone out of my purse and stared at it for a moment while I worked up my courage.

Lula whispered, "Uh-oh."

I looked up at her and grimaced.

Red frowned. "Why uh-oh?"

I lifted my phone. "She knows I'm planning on calling my dad."

Lester groaned as he sat up. "Is your daddy going to wonder why we didn't protect you better?"

I shook my head. "I'm just worried that he'll be disappointed."

I jumped as a voice behind me said, "I could never be disappointed in you, pumpkin."

My eyes widened, and in my haste to stand, I nearly fell off the bed as I forgot about my broken foot. Daddy moved with lightning reflexes and took me in his arms as he hugged me close. "I'm so glad that you're here."

He caressed my hair as he smiled at me. "Now, tell me what you've gotten yourself into."

I spent the next thirty minutes catching him up on everything that had been going on, as well as what I thought they might be planning. When I finished, my dad nodded as his gaze locked with mine. "So, what's the plan?"

I shook my head. "I've been a little distracted and haven't had a chance to figure one out yet."

As if noticing the guys for the first time, he looked around at the others in the room. He nodded at Lula but otherwise didn't say anything until he turned to Alexander. "Ramos. Not to be impolite, but what are you doing here?"

Alexander smiled. "Girlie here gave me the best day of my life when she livened up a wedding reception. Your girl has quite a swing, Plum."

Dad nodded. "Of course she does. I taught her everything I know. That doesn't answer my question, though."

Alexander sighed. "It was my weasel nephew that scammed her to begin with. Don't you worry about him. He's been handled. But according to girlie, we have a passel of other problems coming our way."

"If they've dug in at the Coast Guard, you'd be right."

Once again, the door opened, and Ranger was wheeled into the room with Bobby by his side. The expression on my dad's face when he saw Ranger puzzled me. It was almost as if my dad had recognized Ranger, but I didn't recall hearing him talk about him before. He turned to look at each of the guys once again, and then he nodded. "I have some friends I can call to give us a helping hand. You boys rest up, and we'll meet here at zero six hundred."

Tank nodded. "We'll be here."

My father grinned and his eyes were twinkling as he said, "Yeah, I can't see as you have much choice."

Low laughter reverberated around the room as the others nodded their agreement. All of the men who'd been in on the plan had gathered in the room.

My dad enfolded me in his arms once again and kissed my forehead. He put me away from him slightly so that he could look down at me. "Are you all right?"

I nodded.

His gaze was fixated on my hands, and I could swear he paled.

"This isn't my blood. It's Ranger's. When he was shot, I did what I could to stop the bleeding."

He nodded. "Still. Those bastards are going to pay for putting you through that."

I lifted a shoulder. "I think Alexander beat you to it. He already sent Henry to take care of his nephew."

Once again, Dad nodded. "You've explained the blood. Now what happened with the leg?" His gaze locked on mine as he said the last, and I knew that nothing short of a full disclosure was going to satisfy him.

I took a deep breath and then spent the next twenty minutes giving my father an abridged version of everything that had happened since I came to Miami. Or rather, I thought I'd given him a good accounting.

When I finished talking, Tank grunted, then said, "I think you left out the part about walking into a bank robbery, nearly causing a riot at a restaurant, and taking on a swamp full of gators, numerous poisonous snakes, a jaguar, and the car blowing up on us." He turned to look at my dad. "And that was before she got hurt and doesn't count today."

Dad shook his head. "I see things haven't changed any in the last few weeks. But I think you've set a record for keeping a car."

There was a look similar to shock on the guys' faces. Lester shook his head before saying, "Damn, Beautiful. If what you've been through the last several days hasn't shocked your daddy, what kind of life have you been living?"

My dad chuckled. "Let's just say the day that she broke her arm jumping off the garage roof because she wanted to fly was a precursor for how life was going to be. She was four at the time."

I rolled my eyes. "My reasoning was sound; I just forgot to take a few things into consideration. And you have to admit, you were the first one to encourage me to try it again."

Dad nodded. "I knew if I forbid you to try it again, it would make you want to try it even more. The only way to deter you was to encourage you to think the problem through. At least that way, there was a chance that it would work and you wouldn't get hurt again."

Rodriguez asked, "And did you? Figure it out, that is?"

My father answered, "Three months later, she figured out how to fly from our roof to the neighbor's house across the street."

A low whistle sounded, and then Rodriguez nodded. "Impressive."

Lula grinned and spoke up to say, "Not as impressive as the day she set the chemistry lab on fire when the volcano erupted."

My eyes widened as I looked her way. There was no way I could take it back now that the guys had heard, and from their expressions, I knew I wasn't going to get out of this without a full explanation. Stalling for time, I moved over to Ranger's bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress. I looked around, and all eyes were fixed on me, waiting for an explanation.

"When we were in seventh grade, we had to create a project involving a chemical reaction. Everyone was assigned partners, and Lula and I were paired up. We spent three weeks building the most detailed replica of a volcano that we could. I used some specialized modeling clay to make it look more realistic."

Lula started snickering.

I rolled my eyes again as I continued. "We molded the clay into the shape of a large garbage can and then added more to shape the mountain over the opening. We arranged with the teacher to set it up the night before so that all we would have to do when we got to class was to add the ingredients for the lava. We made sure the clay pot that was the base was about seventy-five percent filled with water, and then we added red Kool-Aid."

I looked around, and all eyes were still fixed on me. I could tell from their expressions that they had no idea where this was going yet. Grimacing, I went on to add, "The next day when we got to class, we were first up, so Lula and I both put on goggles. We'd worn clothes that covered all of our skin so that nothing was exposed. We wanted a big impact, so we added golf balls to the water. Then we took a one-liter plastic bottle that had a brick attached on either side of it with duct tape so the bottom of the brick was even with the bottom of the bottle."

I sighed. From the looks I was getting, Hector and a couple of the other guys had an idea of where I was going with this, but they were letting me tell the story my way. I continued. "We filled the bottle using a funnel over the opening and poured about five inches liquid nitrogen into the bottle. Then, quickly capping the bottle, we put it into the middle of the clay base and then made sure everyone was well away from it."

By now, most of the guys' eyes were wide, showing they clearly knew what was coming next.

I winced. "The explosion was supposed to mimic what's called a Plinian Eruption—a particular eruption often associated with Mt. St. Helens or Vesuvius. The water will launch into the air and rain down. Well, what I wasn't aware of was that the clay we used, when heated to a certain level, had a tendency to chemically change so that it was a conduit that would allow liquid nitrogen to burn in the air."

Lester exclaimed, "Oh, shit!"

I nodded. "Yeah. That pretty much sums it up. The golf balls started flying through the air, hitting the vials around the room that contained chemicals, and when they added to the fire that was burning in the air, it got hot in there very quickly, and we had to hurry up and get out of there. We managed just before the entire lab blew up."

Dad chuckled. "The look on the general's face when I walked into that room and read them the riot act for detaining my twelve-year-old daughter and her friend was priceless."

Lula shook her head. "I was just glad ta see you 'cause those suits was given me the heebie-jeebies."

It wasn't long after that that my father took his leave to return to his hotel room, with the promise he'd see us in the morning. I was reluctant to leave Ranger, and since Red and Lula felt the same way, Bobby arranged for more beds to be brought into the room. It took a while for my brain to slow down to the point where I could fall asleep.

I don't know how long I managed to sleep before my subconscious mind interrupted my sleep with pieces of the puzzle that, until then, hadn't been clear.

Suddenly, I was sitting up in bed, gasping for breath as an alarm sounded.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

**Ranger's POV**

Pain sliced through my thigh as I became aware of the sounds and smells around me. I knew I was in the hospital because of the antiseptic smells. Memories of the fight with Gunner raced through my mind and didn't stop until I had the information that I most needed to know. Stephanie hadn't been hurt. I frowned as I remembered seeing blood on her hands but then relaxed as I remembered hearing her telling someone that the blood wasn't hers, it was mine.

I started to open my eyes, needing to see her so that I could reassure myself that she was okay. The light overhead was too bright, and I started blinking to lessen its effect.

A hand was placed on my forearm as the voice I most wanted to hear said, "I'm glad to see you waking up. I was getting nervous."

I opened my eyes completely and looked up at her beautiful face. There was so much that I wanted to say to her, but all that came out was a hoarse, "Babe."

Stephanie smiled. "I'm here."

The corner of my mouth lifted in a smile as I said, "Not that I'm not thrilled to see you, but how did you get in here?"

Stephanie frowned, as if my question didn't make sense to her. "Ram brought me in here while you were in surgery. Once you came here from recovery, I just couldn't leave you."

I lifted my hand, and she placed hers in it. "Everything is a bit murky after Bobby gave me the injection."

"When they were loading you guys into the ambulance, I got a bad feeling. Ram insisted we ride with you, and then once you went into surgery, I was able to investigate why I was feeling so antsy on the way here. We've determined that the Aryan Nation has a group at Coast Guard headquarters."

I lifted my hand and caressed her cheek with the backs of my fingers. "It might be better for you and Lula to hide out in the panic room at the house until this is all over."

Her eyes narrowed. "I refuse to stand on the sidelines when there is something useful I can do to help."

A voice I hadn't heard in over fifteen years spoke up then to say, "You might as well give it up, son. When she gets this attitude, there's no reasoning with her. She'll come up with a dozen reasons why it's better she stays, and she's usually right."

I turned to see General Frank Plum standing just inside the door.

He nodded to me and then continued, "It's good to see you again. I see you've done well for yourself."

I gave a tiny nod. "I had some good advice several years ago that I followed. I've never regretted it."

He smiled. "Good to know."

Stephanie looked at us like she suspected we were talking in code. Just as she opened her mouth to say something, the general winked at her and said, "I'm sure Ranger will tell you in time, pumpkin, but now isn't a good time."

Her expression changed to one of concern. "What did you find out?"

"They have the place heavily guarded, and since they are surrounded by water, our chances of getting in undetected aren't good."

Lula spoke up from her seat beside Tank to say, "Sounds like what you need is a distraction."

Red sat up in her seat beside Lester. "What kind of distraction did you have in mind?"

The look on Stephanie's face worried me. I could see from the expression of deep concentration that she was hatching some kind of plan. She looked at her father and asked, "Can you get someone to lower a thirty-gallon bucket into the water and move it into position?"

Hector's face lit up as if he understood what she was planning. He turned to me and said, "You need to contact Jericho. He can get everything in place."

My eyes narrowed. "I want to know the plan first."

Red's eyes widened as she said, "Oh, shit!"

I could read on the others' faces that they were catching on to where this was going. "Someone want to fill me in?"

The general shook his head. "Looks like you're going to get a crash course in how Stephanie's mind works."

I glared at him. "There's nothing wrong with the way Stephanie's mind works."

This time his head nodded and there was a look of pride on his face as he said, "Glad you recognize that." He winked at her, and then his gaze swung back to me. "You were out when she told the story of what happened when she made a volcano for her chemistry project."

I turned to look at her.

Her cheeks were red and she was looking everywhere but at me. I tugged on her hand, and she lifted her head to the ceiling before turning to meet my gaze. She grimaced before finally saying, "I blew up the chemistry lab."

A smile was pulling at the corner of my mouth. "What did you get for a grade?"

She grinned. "He had no choice but to give us an A because we realistically showed what would happen when a volcano blew. Although he suggested next time we should use ping-pong balls instead of golf balls so it wouldn't do as much damage."

I struggled to sit up because I had an idea where she was going with this. "And you want to recreate this volcano as a distraction?"

Stephanie nodded. "It has the element of surprise. There is no way they can be expecting an attack from the water…at least not of this magnitude. The force the golf balls will be traveling, it's possible that they might take out several of the players."

Lester rubbed his hands together. "I can't wait to see this!"

Lula chuckled. "You might not think so if you get hit with flying debris. Anybody in the danger zone gonna want ta have a hard hat on their noggin' so they don't get a concussion."

Tank's booming voice broke into the conversation to say, "We can't get everything in place for three or four days. It'll take us that long to plan the attack."

Stephanie carefully sat on the edge of my bed. "That will work. It will take me a few days to mold the base and have it set before it's moved into place in the water. The tricky part is getting the liquid nitrogen into the base."

Erik spoke up, saying, "I can get it in there with a heavy bowgun."

Stephanie's eyes widened. "That could be dangerous. Are you sure you can hit the center when it's underwater?"

Erik nodded. "I can. This is my area of specialty. What I need to know is how much time I have to make the shot."

Stephanie pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down gently. By now, I knew that this was a habit she had when she was thinking. From the wince as her teeth connected with the lip, she'd been doing it too often the past several days. There was a worried look in her eyes as she said, "At most, no more than five seconds, just to be safe."

Erik nodded. He looked at Ram. "Let's go do some target practicing."

Ram smiled. He shook his head as he looked in my direction to make sure it was all right.

After a nod of my head, the two of them were headed out the door.

Manny groaned. "When are we going to blow this Popsicle stand?"

Bobby gave him a stern look. "Not until the doctor releases you, that's when."

Stephanie's hand went to her stomach, and then she swung her head so she was looking at the door. She sat still as a statue for several seconds and then turned so she was looking at me.

"What's wrong, Babe?"

"I can't shake this feeling that something is terribly wrong."

Frank Plum moved over so he could put his hand on her shoulder. "What could be wrong, pumpkin? When I came through, they were just bringing the breakfast trays onto the floor."

Stephanie's eyes widened. "That's it! Block the door!"

Rodriguez moved with lightning speed and had the door locked so that no one could enter the room from the outside.

Everyone turned to Stephanie for an explanation.

She took a deep breath and said, "When I went for a walk earlier, there were two different kinds of meal carts. I overheard one of the nurses wondering about two larger brown ones. They don't use those here."

My eyes narrowed. "Ladies, if you could go through to the bathroom while we get dressed…"

I didn't even have to finish before the three of them were doing as I'd asked. Normally we would be fully dressed and ready inside five minutes; however, with our injuries, it took us a bit longer to complete the task. As soon as the last man was ready, I nodded to Hector, and he opened the doors so that the girls could rejoin us.

"Hector, you're with Stephanie, and Red, you're with Lula. Just like the last time."

The minute the words were out of my mouth, I could see the steam coming from Stephanie. I fully expected her to call me on the carpet, but she didn't call me out in front of the others. She merely nodded her head and turned her gaze to her father.

No words were exchanged, but he gave an imperceptible nod, and she relaxed.

I looked around at the others and said, "All right. Let's go."

Lula's eyes bugged out. "Go where?"

Tank grinned at her as he said, "Now you're going to see why RangeMan gets this wing when they're admitted."

Stephanie held up a hand. "Is this something that the guys who were fired would know?"

Bobby shook his head. "No. The only time that this wing is used is when there is a group of guys who have been injured."

She nodded. "Okay. Then we should be safe, but if there is any way they might know, we would need an alternate route."

Bobby hesitated for a fraction of a second, but then he shook his head again. "They wouldn't know. It's a need-to-know, and we haven't told anyone here."

With that, Hector opened the panel so that we could slip through to the back exit, and we were on our way.

It took us twenty minutes to make our way to where the SUVs were parked. Hector, the general, and Stephanie moved with me toward the Cayenne, and the rest of the group moved to the other vehicles. I went to get in the driver's seat, but Stephanie placed her hand on my arm and leaned in close to my ear.

Her voice was a whisper as she said, "Not going to happen. You can pick which one of us drives, but you won't be driving."

My eyes narrowed on her, hoping that she would back down, but she folded her arms across her chest. I wanted to be angry with her for forcing my hand in letting someone else drive, but the only thing I could feel was pride that she had the nerve to stand up to me. I handed her the keys and went around the vehicle to climb in on the passenger side.

By the time I'd managed to get into the passenger seat, Stephanie was already behind the wheel and her seat belt was fastened. As soon as I was ready, she had the Cayenne started and was backing out of the parking slot.

The report of a weapon being fired had just registered when Stephanie floored the gas pedal, and we rocketed out of the parking lot. I wasn't sure where she was taking us because we weren't going in the direction of RangeMan or my home. I grabbed on to the handle above my head and held on.

Hector swore from the backseat, and I turned around to look. The window was down, and he had his weapon out and drawn, aiming it behind us.

Through the back window, I saw what had drawn his attention. There were five vehicles giving chase, and two of them had machine guns mounted. The Cayenne swerved, and I winced as my thigh was jarred. I looked around to see where we were and if there was a place that would offer us cover. It was then that I realized just where it was that Stephanie was taking us.

"I don't think this is a good idea, Babe. We go barreling in there, and they're just as likely to shoot us as the guys chasing us."

Her attention didn't leave the road as she expertly maneuvered us through three red lights. It was as we were zipping through the last intersection that we picked up a police car, and when we failed to stop or slow down, several more joined the chase.

General Plum sat forward, holding a cell phone in the palm of his hand, and Stephanie rattled off a number. She gave the appearance of being deep in concentration, and there was no change of emotion on her face when a gravelly sounding voice came over the speaker.

"Girlie, what can I do for you?"

"There was an incident at the hospital, and for everyone's safety, we needed to move the party elsewhere. Thing is, the party-poopers are following us, and they've invited some smokies to the party. Your place is the only one I know that can handle the action. We're coming in hot in three minutes."

I could just picture the shark's smile on old Alexander's face as he chuckled and told her, "Come ahead. We'll explain the price for crashing a party."

As Frank clicked off the call, we did a one-eighty so we were heading back in the direction we'd been coming from, and then she rocketed into the entrance leading the Ramos headquarters. She powered her window down and raised her left hand out the window with the hand opened wide.

I looked back, wanting to make sure all of our group made it, and sure enough, as soon as the third vehicle cleared the entrance, the gates closed and the SUVs following had to slam on their breaks. One of the passengers got out, as if he intended on opening the gates, and someone from inside the compound opened fire. The guy was hit in the leg and went down but was able to pull himself back to the safety of the vehicle.

A voice called out to those on the other side of the fence. "This is private property. If you trespass, be prepared to pay the penalty."

Just before we made the long, sweeping curve, I was able to see that the people who'd been following us had fallen back and set up at the perimeter to wait us out.

**Stephanie's POV**

Pulling to a stop in front of Alexander Ramos's mansion, I put the Cayenne into park and turned the vehicle off. Taking a deep breath, I turned to Ranger and said, "I think we're safe for now."

The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. "Where did you learn to drive like that?" His gaze turned to my father as he continued, "Or do I need to ask?"

Daddy grinned as he reached forward and patted Ranger on the shoulder. "I'd love to take credit, but my son-in-law, Joe Morelli, taught Stephanie how to drive when she was fifteen before he left for the Navy. Word is, he was the only one brave enough to get in the car with her after what happened with the Driver's Ed. instructor."

Ranger's eyebrow rose as he looked my way. I knew he was waiting for an explanation, but I was hoping to slip by without having to say anything. I should have known it was a lost cause. However, Ranger lulled me into a false sense of security by not bringing it up until we'd all made our way into the house and Alexander had shown us to the main sitting room.

I was sitting on a love seat with Ranger beside me when he turned to me and asked, "So, what happened to the Driver's Ed. teacher?"

Lula's eye bugged out and she started giggling.

I sent a glare her way before turning back to Ranger. The moment I looked at his face, I knew there was no way that he was going to let this slide. Giving a slight shrug, I made a face and said, "Our first day of behind-the-wheel instruction, it was a really hot day and Mooner was the first one behind the wheel." I smiled wryly as I shook my head. "Mooner is a good friend, but he's a bit on the zany side. Anyway, he had a cat who was as odd as her owner, and she had a habit of hiding in the strangest places. Unbeknownst to Mooner, the cat had chosen his backpack to hide in that morning. What he didn't know was that he would be in the same car as Lula and me, and I had taken my pet hamster, Rex, to the vet that morning because they were closing early and it was the only time I could get him in. He was resting in my backpack in the shoebox I'd fixed up for him with holes in the lid. Well, everything went fine while Mooner was driving, but sometime during Lula's turn, I realized that Rex had climbed out of the compartment where I had him."

There were a few snickers, as if the guys knew where this was going.

I took a deep breath and continued, "When it was my turn to drive, I was doing really well until I felt something small and furry run up my pant leg. Then Mooner yelled for me to watch out, and suddenly his cat attacked my head and I couldn't see where we were going. Next thing I know, the teacher is yelling at me to brake, and I went to brake and there was a squeak, so I lifted my foot, and suddenly the cat dove down between my feet, and the cat and Rex were going in circles around my feet and I couldn't get the brake to work because the cat's tail and Rex kept getting in the way." I took a breath, and then, wanting to get the rest of it out quickly, I continued, "Next thing I know, there are sirens blaring and I can see the strobe lights on the tops of the police cruisers going. I swerved to avoid oncoming traffic and missed the turn that would have taken us to a less populated area, and instead I sent us on a collision course with rush-hour traffic."

I looked around to see everyone looking at me in shock. The only ones who had normal expressions were Daddy and Lula.

Alexander chuckled. "Don't leave us in suspense, girlie. What happened then?"

"Well, Mooner leaned over the backseat and tried to catch his cat. Rex, seeing an escape route, ran up Mooner's arm and dove down inside the neck of his shirt. The cat raced after her prey and started attacking poor Mooner while Lula started screaming. It was enough of a diversion that I was able to apply the brake; only thing is, the car didn't stop. I looked down to try and see what was wrong, and apparently while the two were down there going to town, they'd somehow managed to get the gas pedal stuck to the floor and the brakes couldn't compete, so the result was that we weren't able to stop."

Tank's voice was barely a whisper as he asked, "How did you finally get stopped?"

I grimaced. "I pulled into a BMW car lot, hoping that if I ran us out of gas going around in circles in their parking lot, we'd finally stop. The only thing is, Mrs. Troutman was leaving the dealership with her brand-new car, and when she saw all the commotion with the police and us going around in a circle, she got so distracted that she drove into the glass window of the showroom. People started running, and in a desperate attempt not to hit anyone, I ran into the gas pump at the dealership. We barely got out of the car before the fire started and everyone started running. We made it to the other side of the road just before the first car blew up. It was a brand-new, top-of-the-line BMW, and it must have risen a good fifteen feet before it came crashing back down onto three other cars. Seconds later, one after the other was blowing up, and each time there was an explosion, more cars were pulled into it until there wasn't a car on the lot that wasn't a charred mess."

Lester whistled. "Whoa, Beautiful. You really know how to start a party."

I glared at him. "It wasn't funny! If it hadn't been for Joe teaching me how to drive, I would never have gotten my license."

Lula giggled. "Remember the little old lady who worked at the Driver's License Bureau? She stood by the door of the building and used a bullhorn to tell you what she wanted you to do when you went for your road test."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I remember. At least she passed me on the first try."

"Hate to burst your bubble, Steph, but she passed you cause she was afraid if she didn't, she'd actually have to get in the car with you if you had ta come back."

Ranger rested his hand on my thigh as he said, "You're full of surprises, Babe."

Alexander chuckled. "I'm surprised you don't have more gray hair, Plum."

Daddy turned to Alexander and replied, "You really need to meet my mother-in-law if you think my daughter is something."

There was a spark of interest in the older man's eye, and a plan formed in my mind as to how I could get the two together.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

**Stephanie's POV**

Three days of planning and careful preparation, and we were ready. Erik had the timing and placement down to a science, and I'd been able to construct the base. Between Daddy's contacts and Alexander, Jericho had been able to get everything in place and set up just the way I'd specified. Talk about surprised… After the incident at the restaurant—when Lula had asked him and his group to help Ranger and Tank—I didn't think we would see him again. When he'd walked into the planning session, he'd done a double take when he saw Lula and me there as well. Poor Ranger and Tank… I doubt that they would ever live that one down, because once the guys had heard Jericho's side of what had happened, the teasing started in earnest—the worst offender being Lester.

The eruption was spectacular, and if we thought things had been explosive in the school lab, it was nothing compared to what went on at the Coast Guard headquarters. The whole building was a loss, as was the equipment inside. The group had had several tons of C4, and fortunately for us, none of our people had been in the danger zone when the stuff went up.

Thanks to Daddy, the surrounding homes and businesses had been evacuated due to a gas main break, and Ranger had worked it with the fire department that the RangeMan personnel would be part of the first responder team going in and they had been able to secure all of the survivors and transport them to the nearest police station.

As a big thank-you, we were now at Marty's celebrating the success of the operation. Everyone was laughing and having a great time. I was just very grateful that the whole thing was over as I sat there beside Ranger, enjoying the party mood and listening to the conversation going on around the table.

Daddy shook his head. "When I talked to Terry, he was shocked to learn that Frank Dillard was the local leader of the Aryan Nation."

Ranger's voice was low, and I felt the vibration of his chest as he responded, "He mentioned that the man had changed over the past five years, since learning that he had a child."

Tank grunted. "Who would have thought that Franco Gunnerman was the man's child and that their hatred of non-white people started because Gunner's mother married a Mexican migrant worker who was willing to give her child a name in exchange for citizenship to the US."

Lester nodded. "And the chances that Gunner's younger half-brother was one of the gang that Ranger used to hang out with when he was a kid have to be a million to one."

My gaze went to Daddy as he spoke up to say, "I feel a bit responsible for the animosity Gunner formed against you, Ranger. The fact that you seemed to get off scot-free when his brother had to spend five years in juvenile hall, and then the boy got stabbed and bled to death three days before he was to get out…" He shook his head.

Ranger shook his head. "Freddy was a hard case, and even if you_ had_ given him a second chance, he wouldn't have followed through on anything he promised. I went to visit him before I shipped out. I thought maybe I could convince him to join with me." A minute lift of his shoulder constituted a shrug as he continued. "He told me he'd be too busy making sure he got his own back on the people who sent him there."

Daddy's expression was sad as he said, "Such a waste."

Tank interjected to say, "That must have been when Gunner transferred his hate onto you, Ranger."

Ranger gave a single nod of his head. "Possibly."

My eyes were getting a bit droopy because I'd taken a pain pill earlier. When I stood, Ranger looked up at me, so I leaned down to whisper in his ear, "I need to use the ladies' room."

As I turned to walk away, Lula piped up and asked, "You want some company?"

I rolled my eyes as I told her, "I think I have this covered, but thanks for asking."

There was laughter as I left the table, and about halfway to the bathroom, I got a bad feeling and almost went back to the table. I did turn, though, and saw Red looking my way. She leaned over and said something to Lester that had him looking my way as well, and then she was up and had started in my direction with Lula hot on her heels. Feeling more at ease knowing they were on the way over, I continued on to the bathroom.

I opened the door, and the world went dark.

**Red's POV**

The minute I saw Stephanie glance back at the table, I knew something was up. I leaned over and whispered to Les that I'd be back in a jiffy. As I left the table, Lula fell into step beside me. The two of us reached the area where the restrooms were just in time to see Stephanie falling. Lula lunged to stop her from hitting the ground, and I focused on the scum-sucking bitch with the hypodermic in her hand.

Jeanne Ellen Burrows took one look at me and smirked. "Well, well. If it isn't Lester's little side piece. Just wait till I finish with this one, and then I'll take care of you, too. Then I'll teach that bastard Manoso and his pet cousin not to mess with me."

I laughed.

Jeanne Ellen flew into a rage and came at me with her hands curled to make claws. "I'm going to kill you, bitch!"

I wasn't worried. I'd met Travis—my deceased husband—when I was taking self-defense classes, where he was a guest instructor. Travis had been home on leave at the time and helping out a friend of his by teaching classes in Krav Maga, a specialized martial art used by the Israeli military. As I got into my stance and readied myself for Jeanne Ellen's attack, the rest of the world ceased to exist for me. The fight was fast and furious, and even though Jeanne Ellen was like a mad woman who'd lost her grip on sanity, I was able to take her out with relative ease.

Securing her hands behind her back with a zip tie, I looked around and started swearing. Not wasting a moment, I bellowed out, "_Santos_!"

Within seconds, our entire group was crowding into the alcove outside the restrooms.

The look on Ranger's face as he took in the scene had me pitying the poor dumb bastard who had taken Stephanie. On the other hand, I felt just as murderous, and if there was anything left when Ranger got done, I was going to skin them alive.

Bobby knelt down beside Lula and checked her over.

She moaned and hoarsely whispered, "What happened?"

Bobby answered her by saying, "Looks like someone hit you with something."

Her eyes popped open and she looked around in panic. "Stephanie! She's got Stephanie!"

Ranger's voice was deadly soft as he asked, "Who has Stephanie?"

Lula shook her head, trying to clear it. Her chin was quivering, but she was holding herself together. "It was Mary. I rushed forward to make sure Stephanie wouldn't hit her head, 'cause she was falling. I no more than sat down with her, and Mary appeared." Her gaze went to Ranger's before she continued. "She's scary. I never seen that Mary when we was at the Safari Park."

No one said anything for a heartbeat, and then Ranger was barking orders at breakneck speed, dispatching Erik to take Jeanne Ellen back to RangeMan and throw her into a holding cell—with the emphasis of_ throwing_ her into the cell—and then he was telling the rest of us what we would be doing.

When Tank suggested Lula go back to RangeMan with Erik, she turned on him in full rhino mode and told him in no uncertain terms that she knew more about the park than any of them since she and Steph had worked there for a whole day.

Lester made the mistake of laughing.

Lula turned to him, her eyes narrowing to beady little orbs as she snarled, "What's so funny?"

Les's eyes widened, and he raised his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

Lula gave a brisk nod and said, "Smart move." She turned to Tank. "Stick close ta me, handsome. You can protect both of us."

My jaw dropped as I saw the tinge of pink enter Tank's cheeks.

It was Frank Plum that said, "Let's get this party started."

**Stephanie's POV**

The pain in my head as I started to surface gave me a big clue as to what had happened. The smell told me a lot more though. I remembered it from when we were working at the Safari Park. The sound of a door opening and footsteps nearing where I was lying had me wanting to lift my head and see what was going on, but I knew the smart thing to do would be to keep my breathing the same as it had been when I was under and to pretend I was still out. I thought I might get more from the people who had entered if they thought I was still unconscious.

I knew two people had entered because of the footsteps. One was more forceful, and the other set seemed more timid. The floor was hard, some kind of dirt and stone mixture. Pieces of remembered conversations slipped into my conscious mind, and I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was going to learn just what the arena was in very short order.

Although my eyes were closed and I was giving the appearance of being out cold, my eyes went wide as I heard the male voice. It was only slightly different than it had been the day he had hired Lula and me. This voice seemed oilier somehow as he said, "You did very well, my love. I'll make sure you are well rewarded."

The woman's voice was like a one hundred and eighty degree change from the way she'd acted in our previous meetings. Her voice was sharp and had an edge of madness to it as she said, "I didn't bring her here for you, you moron! She's _mine_!"

Masculine laughter broke the momentary silence. "What could you possibly want with her?"

I opened my eyelids just a slit to better see what was going on. Tyler and Mary were facing off. The look on Mary's face was a bit scary as she smiled at Tyler and said, "You're the one who turned me on to women. Don't be so shocked that I prefer what they have to offer."

He glared at her. "You can't have this one. She's worth a fortune. Not only will she bring a good price, but I'll be able to get back at that bastard Manoso for putting my brother back in jail and interfering with our little business."

Mary laughed. "What's left of him is in jail."

The sound of flesh meeting flesh was loud, but I couldn't see what was going on if I was going to let them keep thinking I was still out.

Mary snarled. "You'll pay for that."

Tyler's voice lowered to a dangerous level as he whispered, "And just who's going to make me pay? You forget…I can put you in the arena anytime I feel like it."

Mary's gasp rang false for some reason, and it had Tyler gloating as he continued with a chuckle, "Forget that, did you?"

The sound of a snake slithering across the floor had goosebumps forming on my arms. Mary's sugary sweet voice saying, "I forget nothing. You should know that by now."

"Where the hell did that come from?" The alarm in Tyler's voice told me all I needed to know.

The laugh that came out of Mary told me the woman had lost touch with reality. "You can get up now, Stephanie. I wouldn't want Horace to accidentally bite you instead of Tyler."

I froze for a second, wondering how she could possibly have known, but her next words told me that she wasn't bluffing as she went on to say, "I would hate to lose you already, but if I have to let him kill both of you, I will."

Reaching out for my cane, I made a production of making it look like it was taking all of my energy to make it to a standing position. Looking around me as I stood, I wondered what part of the park we were in now. The smell told me this had to be close to where the gators and snakes were kept. Once I was steady, I turned to Mary and asked, "Why are you doing this?"

Mary's face contorted into a look of pure hatred as she turned to Tyler. "It's all his fault. Until he brought me here and made me watch what they did to all of those people, I never knew this part of me existed. Now I can't get enough."

Tyler laughed. "You're mad, woman."

She turned on him like a rabid dog, snarling, "I am _not_ crazy!"

The fear in Tyler's expression looked genuine.

I looked around for a way out of here. I didn't know whether Mary had rendered the weapon in the cane useless or if I'd have something to protect myself with or not if I detached it. Suddenly, I started looking in all directions. The water moccasin was nearly to where Tyler was standing, and I knew there wasn't much time before the thing would strike. There was a crash that startled all of us and then…

**Terminator's POV**

I was sitting at the monitors shortly after Chan had come through to tell us that the operation had been a success and the guys had rounded up all of the parties and delivered them to the police station, when I noticed something odd on one of the monitors for the Safari Park. I zoomed in and started analyzing what I was seeing. At first, I couldn't fathom that the person I was seeing was a woman, but sure enough, the one I was seeing was the mousy little one that was usually at the reception desk.

The woman opened the case and reached in with a stick of some kind with what I guessed to be prongs to stun the snake so that she could move it without getting bitten. She quickly put the critter in a sack and made sure the case was locked before she hurried away.

She scurried through the back part of the park and went into a section that didn't seem to be monitored.

I frowned. In all the time I'd worked at RangeMan, I'd never known us to only monitor parts of a business. Fiddling with the settings, suddenly, there it was in front of me. I remembered this place being described in the intel on Taylor Hunt. This was the one thing they hadn't found to tie the bastard into the human trafficking that he was suspected of.

My eyes narrowed as the woman dumped the snake out of the bag and then locked up the building and headed for her car. Debating with myself whether to make something of this or not, I went with my instincts and called Chan to come take a look.

It was less than a minute later that a voice behind me said, "Show me."

I turned to see Chan enter the comm room, and I called up the monitors to show him what I'd seen.

Chan shook his head. "I don't like this."

We continued to monitor the screens, but when nothing had shown up for another twenty minutes, Chan turned to Diaz and asked, "Can you handle the monitors solo for a few minutes?"

Diaz nodded.

It was at that exact moment that Erik pulled into the garage and climbed out of his vehicle. We watched as he walked around the SUV, dragged an unconscious Jeanne Ellen Burrows out of the back, and lifted her in a fireman's carry. He didn't take the elevator but rather the stairs to the holding cells and literally threw the woman in there before locking the door.

Chan turned back to me and said, "You're with me, Terminator."

We made our way downstairs and met Erik in the garage. On seeing us, Erik frowned. "What's going on? Did they find Stephanie?"

My eyes went wide, and I forgot all about protocol. "What do you mean, have they found Stephanie? What happened to her?" I demanded.

Erik shook his head. "Jeanne Ellen shot her with a hypodermic needle just as Lula and Red got to her, and Lula said someone named Mary took her."

Chan swore and motioned to me as he said, "Terminator saw something on the monitors that I want checked out at the Safari Park. I want the two of you to head out there now." He turned to me and said, "You call Ranger in route and let him know what you saw."

I nodded. Erik climbed behind the wheel as I took the passenger seat. I glanced at him to ask, "How fast can you get us there? I don't think we have a lot of time before that snake wakes up."

Erik's eyes widened. "Snake? Man, I've seen enough of them to last me a lifetime. _Damn_!" He shuddered. "We had to go through a room of live snakes to get to where Ranger and the others were when we dealt with Rangoonie and Gunner." Shaking his head, he continued. "And that was after we'd taken care of the alligators."

I smirked. "I heard about that, and all I can say is I'm damn glad it wasn't me. How did the volcano go?"

He grinned. "Man, that was sweet! You should have seen them all running to get away from the golf balls." He laughed. "Of course, I can't really blame them, because the velocity those things were moving at would be enough to cause a concussion or to knock someone out."

I shook my head. "Now _that _I would have loved to see." I frowned. I was worried about Stephanie. Turning to Erik, I said, "Can you go a little faster? I want to take care of this so I can find out about Stephanie."

Erik nodded and stepped on the gas as I pulled out my phone to call Ranger.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

**Stephanie's POV**

The source of the crash was a mystery since I could see nothing that would have caused it. The tingling on the back of my neck told me that Ranger was near, and I wondered if I'd found the source of the crash after all. Now I just needed to stall in order to give him the chance to get into a position where I hoped that he could once again save me. A quick glance at the snake, and I knew the thing was ready to strike out at Tyler. He was so distracted by Mary that he didn't seem to be aware of the danger. I had a quick mental debate with myself on whether to take the chance that my cane had been left intact or not, and then there was no time to waste as everything seemed to happen at once.

At the same exact moment that I lifted the cane so that I could separate the handle—which was in fact a miniature working replica of a .38 special—there was a roar and another crash. The source of this one was obvious when the door to the arena fell inward, as if it had been fractured from the frame, and landed on the floor with Lula on top of it. She quickly scrambled up and started running into the room, waving her hands in the air as she screamed bloody murder.

It didn't take a genius to see what was causing her alarm. The jaguar loping behind her had all the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as the scent of Obsession filled the room.

The snake was momentarily distracted from its intended target, which gave me enough time to reach out with the barrel of the cane, which doubled as a stun gun. Now the most imminent danger was the large cat currently following Lula around the arena.

From the bandages around it, I wondered if it was the same cat that Ranger had shot the day Lula and I worked here. I thought about his words, and he'd only said that the scene behind us wasn't one that we'd want to see. He hadn't elaborated on that, and neither had Tank. I never did ask why. I'd just assumed it was because all the parties were dead. Then I remembered that Mary had said that what was left of him was in jail. What if… The thoughts going through my mind at that point were unpleasant to think about, but it would definitely be a scene that Lula and I wouldn't want to see. Could the real reason Ranger didn't want us to see the scene was that the injured jaguar had attacked the closest thing to it and mauled Taylor Hunt and Babs Nightingham?

Mary and Tyler whirled around in surprise as Lula joined us, and on seeing the cat, their eyes widened in shock. Mary quickly moved out of the path, but she lost her footing and went down. I saw my chance and hurried over with both sections of cane at the ready to use as they were meant to be used. I was just in time to cock the gun and tell her, "If you so much as blink, I will take you out."

As I was moving into action, I saw Ranger and Tank racing into the room at a fast clip, followed by the rest of the team. I noticed that Chandra was with them and Bobby seemed to be sticking close to her.

Terminator looked around the arena, and once his gaze zeroed in on me, he was hurrying over. With a minimum of motion, he'd secured Mary's hands behind her back with a zip tie, and then he gently took my elbow. "Let's get you off that foot, Stephanie. It can't be comfortable."

I shook my head. "I'm okay. I'd rather make sure Tyler and the snake are secured before thinking about myself."

He turned around and looked at where the snake was lying on the ground, and suddenly, he turned a pasty white and hit the ground, taking me with him on his way down.

I tried to move him off me, but he had to weigh close to two hundred and fifty pounds, and from my positon under him, I hadn't a hope of getting free. I looked around and saw Red entering the arena behind Lester. I tried to yell out, but all that came out was a squeak because Terminator was cutting off my oxygen supply.

Red stilled and her head swung in my direction. Her eyes were narrowed until she saw me under Terminator, and then she slapped Lester with the back of her hand and jerked her head in my direction. It was only a matter of seconds before the two of them were working together to get Terminator off me.

I sat for several seconds and then wheezed out, "Get the snake before it comes to—and Tyler too."

Lester moved into position behind a mesmerized Tyler and in no time had the man secured. Then he turned to look at the snake and grimaced.

Red put her hands on her hips and said, "If Lula and Steph can take care of those things, then you better believe you can too. There ain't no way on this Earth that I'm touching the slimy bastard, so just suck it up, Santos."

Lester rolled his eyes at her, and I burst out laughing.

They looked at me in surprise.

I shook my head. "I can't help it. That was an eye roll worthy of any Jersey girl."

Red grinned.

Lester scowled. "It wasn't an eye roll. I had something in my eye is all." He turned to the snake and shuddered. Looking back at Red, he said, "You're going to owe me big time for this, gorgeous."

I went to stand and winced as pain raced through my injured foot. I felt myself sway, and Red swore as she knelt down beside me and said, "Get to it, Santos. We need to get this operation locked up so we can get Steph medical attention."

Lester's gaze settled on me for a fraction of a second, and the change in the man was astounding. Gone was the jokester, and in his place was a soldier ready for battle. He lifted the snake and carried it over to a glass case along the side of the arena. Placing the snake inside, he secured the top so that it wouldn't be able to get out.

I sat there taking in the scene in the arena, from Lester dealing with the snake to Lula running around the room with the jaguar following close behind. Every time one of the guys would get close, the cat would turn on them and snarl, batting its paw in the air as if to tell them to go away.

Suddenly, I had a weird thought. I yelled out, "Lula! Stop running!"

She looked at me like I was nuts as she shook her head and said, "I ain't aspiring ta be cat food today."

I took a deep breath as I studied the scene and then shook my head as I told her, "Do it! I know what I'm talking about. Just stop running and stand still."

She sent me a quick glare and then shouted, "If I get ate, it's on your head." She did as I'd instructed her and stilled.

The jaguar came to a stop and sat down beside her as he raised his head to lay against her purse.

Lula groaned. "You're gonna tell me ta let the cat have the purse, ain't ya?"

Tank growled, and then his deep voice boomed, "I'll buy you another one, for pity's sake!"

Lula's head whipped in Tank's direction, and she smiled like that cat who got the cream. "Well, now, that's a whole different shooting match." She lowered the purse to the floor and then slowly stepped away from the jaguar and purse.

The jaguar gave her a glance, but then the aphrodisiac of the perfumed purse drew its attention back to it and the cat laid down with its head on the purse as it purred.

I was distracted by footsteps hurrying into the arena. I turned my head to see my father entering the room with several men in camouflage. One of the men lifted a tranquilizer gun and shot a dart into the cat. Once the cat was out, they moved forward to secure it into a cage they'd brought into the arena.

Daddy's gaze zeroed in on me, and he hurried over. "Are you all right, pumpkin?"

I nodded. "Yeah..." I tried to move to get up, but the pain was intense in the foot.

Daddy's look turned grim, and he said, "You want to try another answer out for size, or are you planning to stick with that one?"

I sighed. "Terminator fainted and landed on me. I think my broken foot is a little worse for wear."

He knelt down beside me and gently lifted me in his arms before standing.

Ranger joined us. His voice demanding an answer as he asked, "What happened?"

Daddy jerked his head in Terminator's direction. "The Jolly Green Giant fell on her when he fainted."

Ranger's eyes met my father's, and the two squared off. You could feel the electricity going through them. After several intense seconds, Ranger ran his hand through his overlong hair and said, "I respect that she's your daughter, sir, but I respectfully request the right to take care of Stephanie."

Daddy looked down at me with a question in his eyes.

I nodded.

He returned his gaze to Ranger and said, "You see that you take very good care of my little girl, Manoso. If you don't, you'll answer to me."

Ranger gave a smirk and then gestured to the room at large. "Look around you, sir. No disrespect, but you'd have to stand in line. Stephanie has come to mean a great deal to my men and me."

Daddy nodded and then handed me over to Ranger. Then he looked at me as he asked, "Do you think we have things handled here for a while?"

I nodded. "I think we took out the entire cell that was operating in this area. I'm sure they'll pop up somewhere else, but I think Miami is going to be just fine as soon as we get everything back in running order."

"All right, pumpkin. Is there anything you want me to tell your mother?"

I grinned. "You can tell her that I'm happy."

Daddy caressed my cheek and said, "I'll do that." He turned to Ranger. "I'll expect an update on what the doctor says."

Ranger nodded. "Yes, sir. As soon as I know."

Within a week, Lula and I had RangeMan operating at seventy-five percent. The only thing left was to hire a new crew and make sure they were trained. Ranger had asked me to do some searches on a handful of people. I'd finished the searches earlier in the morning and sent the results in an e-mail to Ranger.

I wasn't doing a lot of moving around yet. When Terminator fell on me, the broken bone in my foot shifted, and they'd had to operate to stabilize it. I was told to keep it elevated, and since Ranger happened to be standing beside me when the doctor told me that piece of news, it ensured that I was following doctor's orders to the T. Hector had devised a wheelchair so that my leg was propped to the proper degree while still being able to sit up. There was a table that fit over the wheelchair so that I could use my laptop to work.

A knock sounded on the door, and I looked up to see Ranger standing there. He smiled at me as he moved farther into the room. "I've set up some interviews for this afternoon, Babe. Are you interested in sitting in on them?"

I smiled as I met his gaze. "I'd like that, actually."

He winked. "Good. I've ordered lunch for the team who will be in on the interviews."

My eyes widened. "Just how many of us will there be?"

He lifted a shoulder slightly before saying, "Tank, Lester, Bobby, Hector, you, and me. Red and Lula were invited for lunch as well."

I frowned. "Aren't you afraid that the interviewees will be intimidated?"

Ranger made a slight nod of his head. "One way to judge the measure of a man is to see how he handles intimidating situations. If they fold under the pressure, they aren't meant for this kind of work."

I nodded. "I'll try not to get in your way."

Ranger leaned against the desk beside me and shook his head. "I don't want you to stay quiet, Babe. You're free to ask any questions you want. I trust your judgment."

The warm feeling his words gave me had me smiling. "If you're sure."

He leaned forward, and his lips skimmed mine before he whispered, "I'm sure."

With that, he stood and walked behind me so that he could push the wheelchair to the large conference room where the interviews would be conducted.

The others were all in there when we entered the room. The aroma from the food on the table had my mouth watering, and as Ranger pushed me closer, Hector stood with a smile beaming on his face.

My eyes widened. "How did you arrange this?"

He winked at me. "We interview people to cook. We sample food."

I grinned. "Do I take it that the dishes we like best will narrow the field?"

He bobbed his head. "_Si_."

We got down to the business of eating, and the conversation flowed easily for the hour. When we finished, Red gathered the dishes and placed them on the cart that was situated in the room for that purpose, and once the table was cleared, she pushed the cart to the break room with Lula following her.

I felt a twinge of guilt that Lula wasn't staying for this part as well, but then Ranger leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Tank asked her, but she declined. She said that was more your forte than hers."

"That makes me feel better."

Hector passed out slips of paper, and I looked at him with some confusion.

He chuckled. "You write dishes you like."

Understanding dawned on me, and I scribbled down the dishes that I'd liked the best. There had been eight different dishes, and each of us had had a small portion of each dish. The meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and gravy was close to my mom's, but it fell just short of the mark. On the other hand, the pineapple upside-down cake was the best that I'd ever tasted, and it had to be the front-runner. Thinking over the fish and chips, BBQ ribs, and stuffed cabbage rolls, none of them merited a second thought. The chicken parmesan, enchiladas, and crème brûlée were up there near the top, though.

Once I'd finished giving my critique of the dishes, I handed the folded paper to Hector, and he spirited it away with the others.

Ranger brought out a stack of folders and passed them around the table. "These are the men…and women, that we'll be interviewing today. Everyone will get the same standard answer that we'll get back to them in a day or so. If you have any observations during the interviewing process, just write them on the application in your folder. The originals are in my office, and when we're done here, all the notes will be compiled so that we have a better picture of the applicant. Any questions?"

By this time, Hector had returned, and since the guys had no questions and seemed familiar with the routine, I took it that the explanation was for my benefit. I looked around and frowned.

Before I could ask for a pen, Hector was handing me one.

I smiled my thanks, and he just nodded.

There were ten applicants who came in to interview—six males and four females. Although they all seemed nice, something kept nagging at the back of my mind. There were three of them who had my spidey sense on full alert. Hank Tilby, Mel Burlow, and Helga Stuart. Then it hit me. My thoughts raced back to the conversation with the guys who brought the stove to Ranger's house and how I felt something was off even before I found the bug.

Hank and Mel had finished interviewing and were waiting out in the corridor for their sister Helga to get done. They were half-siblings with the same mother but different fathers, according to the trio.

Helga was answering a question that Tank had posed to her about her last employer. I listened closely as she said, "I worked for five years for my Uncle Al, but times are hard in his business, and he needed to let some of us go. Since my husband and I both work there and he makes more money, it was only right that I volunteer to be the one to look for work elsewhere." She smiled and looked at the guys, waiting for the next question.

It all sounded so practiced…as if she'd rehearsed her answers over and over to the point she could spout them off by memory.

There was a blank piece of paper in the back of the file, and I started to write. The guys were just about to let her go when I spoke up and asked, "The other candidates are all getting their fingerprints done today so that's one less thing they would have to do if they are hired. Would you be willing to get yours out of the way as well?"

The look on Helga's face as she looked at me was like she might have thought I had six heads.

I moved my folder over so that Ranger could read what I had written. Although there was no change in his expression, I knew that he'd taken what I'd written to heart.

Helga stuttered to say, "W…w…well, I…I…I think I'd r…r…rather w…w…wait un…til…I…I…I get h…h…hired."

I smiled, not letting on that she'd given me the answer that I was expecting or that I planned to do an in-depth search on her and the two men with her. "Of course. That won't be a problem. Of course, you know we have several other applicants, so it will be a day or so before we can get back to you."

She looked surprised. "Oh! Well…of course, if that's how you do things. Of course, if another job offers itself, I'd have to accept it…since this one isn't the sure thing I was led to believe."

My smile was still firmly in place as I said, "Of course. That's perfectly understandable."

Ranger broke in to say, "You're free to leave now."

Helga seemed at a loss. It took her several seconds to realize she'd been dismissed. Finally, she turned and went out to where the other two were waiting for her.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Ranger had his phone to his ear, barking out instructions. Once he put the phone away, he turned to me and said, "Nice call, Babe."


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

**Ranger's POV**

Once the interviews were over for the day, I took the files and headed to my office so that I could compile all of the notes on each applicant. I couldn't help but smile as I read Stephanie's notes in regards to the dishes that had been served to us today. The two highest dishes were the pineapple upside-down cake and the enchiladas.

I was pleased that one of the dishes belonged to Ingrid. When I'd gone to visit her and her nephews—Hans and Free—they were surprised that I was willing to give them a second chance. The fact was, I was surprised myself, but after seeing Frank Plum and remembering the second chance he'd offered me all those years before…this seemed the right thing to do.

I warned them that they would need to pass the interview process, though, and it would be harder for the three of them than the rest of the candidates. Each one had assured me they wouldn't have it any other way.

It only took me a matter of twenty minutes to read through everyone's notes and to make notes of my own. I was just shutting my computer down for the night when Stephanie was wheeled into my office by Hector with Tank and Lester hot on their heels.

Stephanie's "I found something" was all anyone said.

I sat back in my chair as I nodded for her to proceed.

She gave me a funny look and then asked, "Is that supposed to mean something? Because reading minds isn't one of my talents."

I smiled slightly as I gave her what she was asking for and said, "The floor's yours, Babe."

She turned her laptop around, and there on the screen was a picture of a group of people.

I frowned. Moving so that I had a better view of the picture, I leaned against the front of my desk, where Hector had parked her wheelchair. "I recognize a few of these people, but not all of them."

She turned the screen so that we could both see, and then she did something on the keyboard to give us a close-up of each of the players. "This is the guy who said he owned Al's."

She looked at me, and I nodded to confirm I was with her so far.

She went on to the next picture. "This is Jeff—" she switched to another picture "—and this is Allen. They're the ones who delivered the stove."

I was starting to get a picture I didn't like, but I just gave her a nod, hoping she would know that was her cue to go on. I had to smile as she rolled her eyes and let out a little sigh before continuing once again. "This is Vito Grizolli, Terri Gilman…" She looked to me to see if I was following her so far.

I nodded, then said, "I'm with you so far."

"This picture was in the Trenton Herald under the headline: Vito Grizolli welcomes a new member of the family. Then underneath that, it goes on to say that his niece Terri will be marrying Senate hopeful" —she pulled up the final member of the group "—Richard Orr."

Hector's growl was low and fierce.

My eyes narrowed as I looked into her beautiful face. "Wasn't that your ex-fiancé?"

She nodded her head. "Seems Dickie dropped Joyce after I altered her looks, and he took up with Terri. Either Terri or Joyce might be the stalker. Joyce for revenge because of the damage I did to her in the fight, which caused her to lose Dickie, or Terri because I stand in the way of Dickie ever holding public office."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because of the pictures my cousin Vinnie gave me when he found out I dropped Dickie. He told me if the dumb bastard ever tried to hurt me, I could publish the photos and there would never be a hope of him gaining public office. Dickie knows that I have the photos too. I told him in front of some reporters after the circus."

Lester whistled. "You know how to play hardball, Beautiful."

I grinned. "I had a wonderful role model with my dad while I was growing up. Plus, my brother-in-law is no slouch in that department."

I thought about everything that Stephanie had told me as I formed a plan to catch the idiot who was targeting the woman I loved. When I caught them, I had very specific plans to show them not to mess with me or mine.

When I looked up at the guys, Lester grinned and said, "Holy shit! Someone's in for a world of hurt."

I shook my head. "Only if they are stupid enough to fall for the trap."

**Stephanie's POV**

If the interviews yesterday were anything to go by, our prospects of finding enough employees to run RangeMan Miami didn't look promising. Today was a new day, though, and I was willing to have an open mind. Once I'd found the photo yesterday, I'd made a call to Daddy, and he'd promised me that he and Joe would look into things on their end. Ranger had called Jericho and asked him to take care of it on this end. I felt marginally better, but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

This morning when we got to the office, there was a buffet set up, and just like yesterday, we were asked to make notes on all the dishes. My eyes rolled back in my head with pleasure as I took a bite of the Boston Cream doughnut. Whoever made this certainly had my vote. I was betting that it was the same person who had made the pineapple upside-down cake the day before. My only concern was to find out if they could make more than sweet things.

The morning interviews didn't go so hot. The applicants were ordinary and there was nothing really wrong with them, but I was getting a vibe that this just wasn't the job for them. Two were former police officers who had mediocre records, and another was former military with nothing noteworthy on his record. I wasn't looking for a super hero or anything, but knowing the kind of work that these men would need to do here, I was looking for someone like my father, Joe Morelli, or one of the RangeMan guys I knew. I already knew there wouldn't be anyone like Ranger… He was one of a kind.

We broke for lunch at one p.m., and once again there was an assortment of food. This time it was the fried chicken, potato salad, and Greek salad that made my mouth water. I was a bit confused because it seemed like the same person made all three dishes. I looked over at Ranger, and the corner of his mouth lifted.

He leaned in closer to me and said, "It was unanimous the last two times, and since you added the comment about wondering if they could make anything but sweets, I decided to check it out."

It was then I noticed that instead of the fried chicken and potato salad, Ranger had broiled salmon and steamed vegetables along with his Greek salad. I grinned. "Do I take it we have a housekeeper/cook for the building?"

He gave a slight nod. "Yes, but the person hasn't been told just yet."

I frowned, wondering what more there was to the story.

It didn't take us long to finish the meal, and then the interviews continued in earnest. The first applicant had possibilities, but I wanted to do a bit more research before giving him the nod. He was a crack electronics technician, but some of the answers he gave were different than the ones I would have chosen. I wanted to see if they had merit.

Looking through the stack in front of me, I noticed that Hans Swanson was next up to be interviewed. I felt a tension in the room that hadn't existed until now, and I was wondering about it when the man in question walked into the room.

Hans looked directly at Ranger, never losing eye contact as he said, "I appreciate you giving me an interview, sir."

There was definitely something going on here that I was unaware of.

Ranger kept his gaze steady on Hans, and although there was the slight movement of him shifting from one foot to the other, he continued to look Ranger in the eyes.

I was impressed with Hans's nerve. It seemed that he was uneasy, but he refused to back down from the situation. This was the first interview that I knew for certain we were interviewing someone I thought belonged here.

While the guys asked questions, I wrote down my observations, looking up as Ranger said, "We have more applicants to interview before I can give you a definite answer. Thank you for coming in."

Hans nodded his head and turned to go, only to turn back with a frown and say, "I saw a man in a dark sedan across the street from the garage entrance. Normally that wouldn't bother me, but he was there yesterday as well. The windows are tinted, but I could have sworn that he had a pair of binoculars and was looking in the direction of the building. From that location, the only thing he could see would be the office we were told was yours when you were in Miami."

That caught everyone's attention. Ranger's eyes narrowed.

I felt like I was on a roller coaster and my stomach had plummeted without me. Turning to Ranger, I said, "I've been feeling like someone is watching me."

As if there was a silent signal, all of the guys stood and took off out of the conference room, leaving me there on my own. Just as I was wondering how I was going to get anywhere, Red walked into the room with a serious expression on her face.

"Santos said to stick to you like glue. What's going on?"

**Unknown POV**

Looking up at the window, I was fuming. This was all _his_ fault! The poor dumb bastard couldn't even make good on his plan to torture Manoso by killing her in front of him. How he'd managed to pick up on the fact that the man had feelings for her was beyond me. I saw them together and never thought twice about it. They didn't act like lovers.

Letting out a sigh, I lowered the binoculars to the seat beside me and wondered what all the traffic was. There had been a lot of people going and coming yesterday and the same thing today. Oh, well. I just needed to bide my time.

Things might work out for me better now because she wouldn't be able to get away from me due to her injured leg.

I let myself smile as I thought about all of my plans. By the time her foot was healed, she would be well and truly under my influence. We'd get married and live happily ever after.

Impatient with the waiting, I grabbed the binoculars and trained them on the window where I could usually get glimpses of her. Unfortunately, just like yesterday, there was no sign that she was in the building. If I hadn't seen her go in there with my own eyes, I'd actually believe she hadn't been at work the past couple of days.

The front doors opened, and a couple of guys came out, high-fiving each other.

A deep sigh escaped, and I felt like pummeling the steering wheel with the frustration I was feeling. I watched the two cross the road in my direction, and they seemed unaware of their surroundings. They looked happy about something, but I had no idea what that might be. Dismissing them as unimportant, I turned back to the building.

A sudden pop and the front passenger side sinking slightly had me frowning as I wondered what on earth was going on. I opened my door so that I could get out and see, and suddenly I was being thrown against the car and my hands were handcuffed behind my back. I tried to resist, but whoever was behind me was a brute.

**Ranger's POV**

Once Hans had told us about the suspicious activity on the street, we went into warrior mode. On leaving the conference room, I started barking orders at the men so that we could get this bastard and find out what he might want with Stephanie…if that was in fact who he was watching.

Hans stepped forward. "Ranger, Free and I can act as a distraction going out the front. If we go out all smiles and give each other high-fives, he won't think we are a possible threat."

I gave a single nod. "Do it. Give us five minutes to get into position and then make your exit. Tank, Santos, and I'll go out through the garage and circle around. Rodriguez and Zip go out the left side, while Hector and Zero go out the right and get into position. Ram, I want you on the roof. You have the go-ahead for the kill shot if you deem the situation warrants it. Let's move out."

With that, we were on our way. I was vaguely aware of Santos telling Red to stick to Stephanie like glue, and I was relieved that someone would be watching out for her while we were out of the building.

Three minutes later, the three of us were in position, and I could see the other two teams reaching their destination as well. Now, the only thing we were waiting for was for Free and Hans to walk out the front door to distract the car's occupant. Although the windows were tinted, the person in the car seemed familiar somehow, even though I didn't think I'd seen them before.

Five minutes later, on the dot, Hans and Free stepped out of the building. They had big smiles on their faces and did a high-five before checking for traffic and crossing the street in the direction of the car.

Whoever was inside the car didn't seem to think anything was amiss, and I knew that gave us the advantage.

The minute Free drew even with the car, he bent down to the ground, and I noticed the knife he drew from an ankle holder. One slice was all it took to deflate the tire.

The instant the tire popped, the subject inside the car opened the door to get out of the vehicle.

That was our cue, and we moved in. Within a matter of seconds, we had the man in custody and were on our way back into the building. I stopped long enough to look at Free and Hans. "Consider yourselves rehired. That includes your aunt. All three of you will have to prove yourselves more than anyone else we hire. If you stay the course, it'll be worth it. Just remember that, when times get to where you start thinking about quitting, the end is worth it."

They both looked relieved, but it was Free who spoke up. "We won't let you down, Ranger. We're just grateful for the second chance. "

I lifted my shoulder in a slight shrug. "Your actions in trying to protect your aunt and not trying to hinder our progress when we took over the building merited you a second chance. What you do with it is on you. Although this will level the playing field a bit, life isn't always fair. It's how we deal with those trials that tells a man's measure."

Hans nodded. "You won't be sorry."

I turned to head back to the building but turned back long enough to say, "You'll be expected at oh six hundred for training. Just so you know, I think Gunner had grown lax in that department, so come prepared to work your asses off."

Both men grinned and raised a hand. "We'll be there."

"The caretakers are usually housed on the sixth floor, but considering all that's happened, if your aunt would prefer a different apartment, it can be arranged."

The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Hans asked, "Would Aunt Ingrid have to live on site? My uncle was a wealthy man apparently. My aunt has bought a little house that gives her peace."

I shook my head. "As long as she has the three meals in the break room at the designated times and can do the rest of her job, there should be no problem with her living somewhere else."

I could see the relief in their eyes before I headed back to the building.

When I stepped into the foyer, the elevator opened. Stephanie was inside with Red and Lula. She blushed when I lifted my eyebrow at her and said, "I won't get out if you ask me not to, but I just needed to see for myself who it is."

I nodded. "All right, Babe." I motioned to Red. "Wheel her out."

We made our way to the conference room on the ground level.

Once we were through the door, the man we'd taken into custody turned and seemed excited to see Stephanie. "I knew you'd come."

Stephanie frowned. She studied him for several seconds, and then her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Carla Stanton?"

There was a snarl on his face. "No! Not Carla. I'm Carl. I've come for you, my love. I would have been here sooner, but Gunner ruined my plans for a while."

Lula shook her head. "You make a better girl."

The hatred in Carl/Carla's eyes caused Lula to back up a step before she lifted her chin and stood firm.

Lula smiled. "Them prisoners sure gonna love you."

I looked at Stephanie, and she shook her head. "I think I'll go back up and get some work done. I think you have everything handled here."

Carl cried out, "No! I love you, Stephanie. You can't leave me."

She turned to look at him but didn't say anything as Red turned her chair and wheeled her out.

**Epilogue**

**Red's POV**

I had placed myself in the most strategic place to surprise Lester. It had been three weeks since we had had the chance for some alone time, and when I found out Cal wasn't working, I'd asked him if he'd be willing to watch Ava for me. Of course, he'd jumped at the chance. He'd been wanting to take her to the zoo, but finding a time when it gelled with all of our schedules had been harder than expected. He'd picked her up at seven this morning, and she would be spending the night at his place.

The locks tumbled, and I froze in place so I wouldn't be giving Les any forewarning of what I had in store for him. I could hear movement in the house, and from the sound, it was coming closer. I readied myself to act, and when Les went for the decoy, I sprang into action and jumped on his back, piggyback-style. It was enough to throw him off balance, and he fell onto the king-sized bed.

I lost no time in securing Lester to the bed with the handcuffs I was carrying, making sure I had him positioned just the way that I wanted him.

I gave him a pouty look as I leaned over him, letting my hair fall onto his chest as I used my best sultry voice to say, "Lester, you should know not to make me wait for you… Now you'll have to pay for that. That mouth and your comments are getting out of hand. Anything to say for yourself?"

He opened his mouth as if to answer, but I placed my forefinger against his lips. "I didn't think so."

Slowly, I started to take my clothes off, knowing that he wasn't going anywhere for quite some time. As I did, I looked at him in his perfect naked form. He is built in _every way_ _imaginable_.

I straddled him as he lay on his back on the bed, both hands handcuffed around one of the rails of the headboard, first kissing his mouth and then moved to his neck.

Already his breathing was quickening as he said, "Red, don't make me wait."

I giggled. "Oh, you have no idea."

I slowly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it back from his chest, and then I leaned down and laved every inch of his heated skin before blowing on it. I slowly moved to his nipples and tongued each of those before moving down. His groans told me just how much he was enjoying this. By the time I reached his naval, his breathing had quickened and he was making those little noises I liked so much when we were making love.

Sitting back on his abdomen, I grinned at him as I turned around so that my ass was in his face and I could get to the area of his body I was the most greedy to expose. I popped the snap on his cargos and moaned with pleasure as his hot, wet tongue took a swipe at my core. As I tried to keep it together while his tongue was busy giving me pleasure, I continued removing his pants as I licked and blew on every inch of his groin. I took his balls into my hands and watched him squirm. His cock warranted attention, so I licked his tip, and he let out a groan.

As I went farther down his length, he started to move his hips, grunting, and proceeded to fuck my mouth. When he was getting close, I stopped and moved back to his mouth.

Lester groaned. "C'mon, Red. I need inside you."

Starting the process over, I did everything the same way, only slower. He was moaning, which always did things to me, and I picked up the pace. I felt his cock getting harder, so I paused and moved back up to his lips.

"Red, I can't take much more of this."

By that point, I was just as hot for it as he was, so I slipped him inside me and stopped. He was so deep that I started to get goosebumps and threw my head back. "Les, you don't know what you do to me."

That seemed to unleash him, and he started to move. With the sounds he was making, I knew it wouldn't be long. The loud moans between the two of just enticed each of us to go faster. I cried out his name, and he yelled, "Oh, fuuuuck!"

I gave him a look, and he grinned at me, knowing that I would come back with some remarks for that.

"I'm going to the bathroom. I'll get a towel," I told him as I headed in that direction.

His reply was silence, and when I looked back, his eyes were closed.

After cleaning myself up, I took a wet washcloth and towel with me and cleaned him up. Once I'd finished, I asked, "Where are the handcuff keys?"

His eyes popped open, and he looked at me and said, "What do you mean, where are the handcuff keys?"

I lifted a shoulder in a shrug as I said, "The cuffs were in the bag, but there was no key."

He paled a little bit and choked out, "You have the key. It was on your dresser."

My eyes widened. "Oh, no!" I stopped and replayed the conversation with Ava in my head. "No, she didn't…"

"Red, I don't know what that comment was, but I think you should tell me." He moved his arms as much as he could and then said, "My fingers are getting numb."

I sat on the edge of the bed and hefted out a big sigh before saying, "Ava lost her key to the dollhouse, and I told her we would get a new one. I think she found one." I started laughing, and he looked at me like I had two heads.

"This isn't funny, Red. You'd best find out if she has that key." His voice was calm, but he was anything but.

I picked up the phone from the nightstand and dialed Cal's number.

He answered in his usual way by saying, "Hey, Red."

"Cal," I snickered, "I need to talk to Ava please… quickly."

I heard him call to her, and then Ava said, "Hi, Momma. I miss you and Lester."

I tried to contain myself as I told her, "We miss you too, baby. Do you remember when we were talking about the dollhouse needing a key?"

There was silence, and I could just imagine my three-year-old daughter standing there nodding her head, as if I could see through the phone. "Uhm, Ava, baby, Mommy needs you to answer. Did you find a key?"

"Uh-huh. It was on your clothes box."

I smiled. "Do you mean my dresser?"

"Yup. The dolls needed to get in the house."

I glanced at Les and winked, "Thank you, baby. I need that key back. Do you remember where you put it?"

"Momma, was that key impotent?"

I started laughing and said, "Yes, it's important."

"Uh-oh."

"Where's the key, baby?"

"It got dirty, so I tried to cween it, and it go down the drain."

My eyes got big as I tried to keep the laughter in as I said, "Okay, baby, let me talk to Uncle Cal, please."

"Otay. Bye, Momma."

"Yo." Cal's commented when he got back on the line.

"Uhm, Cal, are there spare handcuff keys?"

He started laughing, and after a couple of minutes when he was able to talk again, he said, "Yes, but you're going to have to ask Ranger for one. He's the only one with access."

After disconnecting the call, I quickly looked at Les and said, "I'll go and get a key from Ranger."

He groaned. "Dollhouses don't lock."

I gave him a "well, duh" look as I walked over and gave him a kiss, and then said, "We know that…but it's fun for her to make believe."

His eyes narrowed with a noticeable gleam in them as he said, "Just remember, gorgeous… Paybacks are a bitch."

I was on my way to the door and looked back over my shoulder to grin back at him. "I sure do hope so."

**Stephanie's POV**

The sound of the phone ringing woke me, and I opened my eyes enough to see Ranger grab his cell from the bedside table. "Yo."

I watched him as he listened to the caller, and from the smile forming on his face, I knew it must be something good. His only comment to the caller was that he'd send the elevator. Replacing his cell on the nightstand, he turned to me and cupped my jaw with his hand as he lowered his head to kiss me. Our mouths clung for several seconds before we had to come up for air.

"I'll be back in a minute, Babe. It seems Lester has lost the key to his handcuffs."

I frowned. "So, what kind of security expert doesn't know how to pick a lock?"

Ranger chuckled. "I imagine it's the placement of his hands."

My eyes widened as I realized just why Lester wouldn't be able to pick the lock on them. I had a feeling that he wasn't going to live this one down for a good long time.

While Ranger went to wait for Red to come and get the spare key, I thought about the changes my life had taken the past six months. When Lula and I had left Trenton for Miami, we had no idea that just eight months later, we would be returning.

By the time we'd left Miami, the RangeMan office there was operating in the black and all personnel had been hired and trained. Ranger had okayed Rambo's and Terminator's requests to transfer to Miami permanently, but only after assuring Terminator that there were no hard feelings regarding my set-back and his part in it. Quite the opposite, in fact. The fact that Terminator had spotted what was going on and had come to my rescue more than made up for the rest.

I thought back to Carl Stanton's capture. Since the guys weren't sure whether he was a she or a he, it had been decided that Red would do the strip search until there was evidence that Carl wasn't female. That proved to be the right decision, because halfway through the search, Carla had emerged and freaked out because she hadn't known where she was or what was going on. Red had had no trouble subduing her and finishing the job before making sure she was secured in one of the holding cells in the basement.

Last week, Ranger had made the decision that it was time to return home. Red flew Ava—her three-year-old daughter who'd joined us four months ago—Lester, Hector, Ranger, and me back to RangeMan, while Charlie flew Tank, Lula, and the rest of the group returning in the plane.

Lula and I had been asked if we wanted to continue working for RangeMan or if we wanted an office of our own in which to operate our business. We went over everything concerning RangeMan Trenton and decided except for a few small issues, there wasn't a need for our assistance, so we'd accepted the offer of an office, with the proviso that we pay rent—instead of the no rent Ranger was offering—and if Ranger needed our help, we'd be available. We'd spent the past couple of days setting up the office and getting to know all of the people here.

Movement near the door caught my eye, and I turned to see Ranger joining me once more. I smiled and threw back the covers. His eyes dilated, and seconds later, he was naked once more and making good on his earlier promise of ruining me for all other men.

**Unknown POV**

I looked down at the picture on my desk and traced her beautiful face. Anger fueled me that she was with someone else. I'd had to lay low the past few months because her father and brother-in-law had been snooping around. She was back now, though, and soon I'd make her mine…and if that failed, I'd make sure that no one else could have her.

**A/N:** Thank you all for coming along for the ride. Look for Red and Lester's story to be out next year.


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